Legislation update: Employers must proactively manage sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment at work

Queensland employers must proactively manage the risk of workplace sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment, in a nation-leading regulatory reform.

What has changed?

The Queensland Government has introduced new requirements for stronger regulation of sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment at work.

Amendments to the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 expand on the existing psychosocial risk provisions by requiring employers to specifically manage the risk of sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment at work. These regulations make it clear that workplaces need to be proactive about preventing sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment.

Employers can manage these risks by identifying risks, implementing control measures in accordance with the hierarchy of controls, reviewing control measures and implementing a prevention plan.

Why this is important

The Work Health and Safety (Sexual Harassment) Amendment Regulation 2024 requires Queensland employers to proactively manage the risk of sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment in the workplace.

This change is important because sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment in Australian workplaces is widespread. One in three people have experienced it in the past five years, and most people who experience it never report it, fearing potential consequences to their reputation, career prospects and relationships. It can occur in any workplace and any industry, but especially in workplaces with a high degree of power imbalance or gender inequality.

How your business responds to reports of harassment can impact and define the experience of the person reporting harassment.

What actions can I take now?

• Learn about the nature, drivers and impacts of sexual harassment in the workplace, and how to identify the risk of sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment.
• Consider worker, workplace or work environment characteristics that may increase the risk of sexual harassment (e.g. low worker diversity or power imbalances).
• Recognise that sexual harassment is both a human resources and safety issue and requires collaboration with your workers and a systems thinking approach to health, safety and wellbeing.
• Provide your people leaders and rehabilitation and return to work coordinators with the right training, so they have the skills and confidence to respond with empathy and support the emotional needs of workers who have experienced sexual harassment.

Prevention plan

• From March 2025, employers must prepare a prevention plan to manage an identified risk to the health or safety of workers, or other persons, from sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment at work.
• Further guidance and information on the preparation of a prevention plan will be provided by the Office of Industrial Relations prior to the commencement of this requirement. This will include providing a template prevention plan.

Your toolkit

• Download the Sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment fact sheet (PDF, 0.64 MB).
• Read more about theWork Health and Safety (Sexual Harassment) Amendment Regulation 2024, sexual harassment and workplace harassment.
• Revisit our past e-bulletin article on how you can Act now to stop workplace sexual harassment.
• Access and share the Australian Human Rights Commission’s suite of resources to educate and train workers, employers and leaders on the nature, drivers and impacts of sexual harassment in the workplace.
• Refer to the Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice 2022 to return the worker to a psychologically healthy and safe environment.