Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2025L00326:body:0:p13
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2025L00326
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 34425–37384

You must identify where sexual or gender-based harassment is a reasonably foreseeable hazard that could give rise to risks to health and safety. This means identifying where it happens or could happen.
Sexual and gender-based harassment can harm workers both when they are directly exposed to instances of harassment as well as when they are exposed to the risk of it occurring. For example, workers exposed to sexual and gender-based harassment are likely to experience stress from the initial incident as well as ongoing stress if they perceive the risk has not been controlled, even if the harassment does not occur again. In this situation, despite the hazard rarely occurring, the stress itself may be prolonged and cause harm.
Overt or severe forms of sexual and gender-based harassment (such as sexual assault) may be easier to identify. However, more subtle forms like crude language or sexist remarks may not be reported and can be more difficult to identify.
Sexual and gender-based harassment can come from a range of sources including:
   -            Internal, from other workers however they are engaged (e.g. employees, contractors, subcontractors or volunteers) and at any level (e.g. supervisors or managers, co‑workers at the same level or workers below their level).
   -            External, from third parties such as from customers, clients, patients, residents, students, parents, carers, service providers, businesses (e.g. between a plumbing and an electrical subcontractor at the same work site; or a delivery person and a retail worker), members of the public or anyone else workers deal with at work.
It may be easier to identify hazards if:
   -            managers regularly talk to workers about workplace concerns and sexual and gender‑based harassment is recognised as a WHS issue
   -            managers and workers attend training on sexual and gender-based harassment and have a good understanding of what it is and the relevant workplace policies in place to address this conduct, and
   -            workers feel safe and comfortable to raise concerns about sexual and gender-based harassment or other workplace conduct issues.

     3.1          Methods of identifying sexual and gender‑based harassment

Consult workers
You must consult with your workers and their representatives when identifying the risk of sexual and gender-based harassment at work. This includes consulting on hazards and risks related to the existing work and work environment, as well as risks related to proposed changes to work that affect health and safety.
Consultation should focus broadly on identifying the risk of sexual and gender-based harassment. While past instances of sexual and gender-based harassment can help you to identify when, where and how harassment might occur, consultation to identify this hazard should be broader. Even where sexual and gender-based harassment has not occurred or been formally reported, there may be