With more than a quarter of women reporting experiencing sexual harassment at work, new legislation could go a long way to address inappropriate behaviour.
Anti-discrimination laws (ADL) have been prohibiting sexual harassment in workplaces for over three decades. However, sexual harassment still remains prevalent, with rates of the offences increasing or increasing rates of self-reporting.
ADL is limited because of four main features: the rule it imposes is negative prohibition rather than a positive duty to prevent; it is enforceable by individual victims; any of the enforcement is primarily through a private, confidential conciliation process and all the remedies granted are ordinarily individual and compensatory in nature.
Source: The legal solution to prevent sexual harassment at work – Lawyers Weekly