Frequently asked questions about the electronic conveyancing regulatory guideline
Our Sexual Harassment Complaints team have specialised training in managing sexual harassment complaints. You can make a formal complaint, which is managed by the team via our regular complaints process, or you can provide an informal report or information anonymously.
If you are not sure which pathway is right for you, you can speak to our sexual harassment complaints specialists to understand more about the process before deciding whether to make a formal complaint.
To make a complaint to the VLSB+C:
Find out more about each of the reporting pathways below:
We have developed a resource that provides information about what you might consider doing if you are experiencing sexual harassment, including at the time of an incident and immediately afterwards. Find out about options for reporting sexual harassment, including the various pathways and potential outcomes.
Access our experiencing sexual harassment resource.
Access a guide providing information about what you might consider doing if you witness or hear about sexual harassment in legal workplaces. It covers actions that bystanders can take to respond to sexual harassment.
Access our witnessing sexual harassment resource.
Since 12 December 2023, organisations and businesses have been required to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate workplace sexual harassment, sex discrimination, hostile work environments and victimisation as far as possible, pursuant to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (C’th).
The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has developed a suite of practical guidance materials to help organisations and businesses to understand their responsibilities and the changes they may need to make to satisfy the positive duty. The most comprehensive legal resource on the positive duty are the Guidelines for Complying with the Positive Duty (2023), which provide examples of practical actions that organisations and businesses can take as well as detailed information about: what the positive duty is and who must meet it; what it means to take ‘reasonable and proportionate measures’; and how the positive duty will be enforced.
The Guidelines also set out seven standards and examples of practical actions outlining what the AHRC expects organisations and business to do to satisfy the positive duty. Those standards are:
The AHRC has also published A Resource for Small Business on the Positive Duty (2023) to provide more targeted information for the small business community about the new positive duty, which may be of particular assistance to smaller law practices.
Businesses in Victoria have had a ‘positive duty’ to combine both prevention and response measures in their approach to managing sexual harassment since the commencement of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic).
The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission's 2020 Guideline: Preventing and responding to workplace sexual harassment provides practical, easy-to-implement advice for employers to help them comply with their legal obligation to keep every employee safe from sexual harassment.
VEOHRC has identified six minimum standards that Victorian employers must meet to comply with their positive duty to eliminate sexual harassment. These include steps to prevent sexual harassment, as well as appropriately responding to sexual harassment when it does occur.
These standards are:
The guideline also includes a step-by-step guide for dealing with sexual harassment complaints, a risk matrix tool, and a gender equality framework to help employers take action on the underlying issues that drive sexual harassment.
As the authoritative and comprehensive resource on Victoria’s positive duty for employers and workplace sexual harassment, this guideline may be considered in judicial proceedings when deciding whether employers have complied with the law.
Also available is an innovative online Sexual harassment support and response tool. This free and confidential interactive chat tool guides employers, people who have experienced sexual harassment, and bystanders through information about sexual harassment and their rights and responsibilities, if they encounter sexual harassment at work.
Source: Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission
Work-related gendered violence, including sexual harassment, is a serious occupational health and safety issue. The WorkSafe guide is intended to help employers prevent and respond to work-related gendered violence.
Sexual harassment is a common and known cause of physical and mental injury. Where there is a risk of work-related sexual harassment causing physical or mental injury, employers have an obligation under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) to control that risk. This obligation is in addition to the obligation of employers under the Equal Opportunity Act and the Sex Disccrimination Act 1984 (Cth).
Those with management and control of a workplace must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the workplace is safe and without risks to health.
You can download a copy of the guide from WorkSafe’s website. For more information, see Gendered Violence: WorkSafe Victoria.
The LCA's Model Framework was developed as a guidance material to assist the profession to proactively prevent and respond to sexual harassment.
Legal workplaces can adopt it in its entirety or use it, along with a helpful checklist, to augment or refine existing policies.
You can download the Model Framework on the LCA website.
Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, which a reasonable person would anticipate, in all the circumstances, would make the other person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. It can be physical, verbal or written (including through online spaces and social media platforms).
Examples of behaviour that could be workplace sexual harassment include:
Sexual harassment constitutes ‘workplace sexual harassment’ when it occurs in locations and spaces that are in some way connected to work, including:
Sexual harassment is not just an individual problem, it is a systemic issue driven by the broader discrimination, disrespect and inequality that women experience in everyday life.
Anyone can be sexually harassed. However, most harassers are male, and the majority of their targets are women.
Certain groups also experience disproportionately high rates of sexual harassment, including LGBTIQ people, young women, women with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, and women from multicultural and multifaith backgrounds.
Source: Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission
Our Sexual Harassment in the Victorian Legal Profession study showed that one in three survey respondents had experienced sexual harassment at some point in their career. However, there are significant differences between the experiences of women and men in the profession, with 61% of female respondents and 12% of male respondents reporting experiencing sexual harassment in Victorian legal workplaces.
The study consisted of two surveys, conducted in August and September 2019. The first survey was sent to all Victorian legal practitioners, with more than 2,300 lawyers responding about their experience of sexual harassment in the profession. The second was sent to principals of law practices to collect data about how sexual harassment is managed in their workplaces.
Our study found that:
Our regulatory strategy aims to tackle the issues raised in our report with both proactive and reactive measures.
You can read more about our report here.
We have developed a resource that provides information about what you might consider doing if you are experiencing sexual harassment, including at the time of an incident and immediately afterwards. Find out about options for reporting sexual harassment, including the various pathways and potential outcomes.
Access our experiencing sexual harassment resource.
Access a guide providing information about what you might consider doing if you witness or hear about sexual harassment in legal workplaces. It covers actions that bystanders can take to respond to sexual harassment.
Access our witnessing sexual harassment resource.
There are a number of ways you can report sexual harassment. You can report anonymously, or you can report on the record. Whatever you choose to do, there are supports available to help.
If you are in danger or want to report a crime, you should contact Victoria Police on 000.
If you wish to discuss a matter confidentially with us, or make a report or complaint relating to sexual harassment by a lawyer, please contact our sexual Harassment Complaints Team.
