Nearly a third of Australian companies are failing to collect data on the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace despite nearly all having formal policies on the issue, according to a new report.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), which sits within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, released its first report into what Australian companies are putting into place since a positive duty to provide a safe workplace for all employees was introduced in 2022.

More than 7,000 medium and large employers with at least 100 employees, covering more than 5 million Australian workers, were required to report information to WGEA about their effort to prevent, and respond to, sexual harassment in 2024.

This is based on a recommendation from the Respect@Work report, which found a policy-based approach should be considered as a “minimum” and “reactive” benchmark, and that more data is needed to understand what actions are in place in Australian workplaces.

Formal policy

The first release of data from this report has revealed that nearly 99 per cent of the covered employers have a formal policy on work-related sexual harassment and discrimination, and 98 per cent have comprehensive processes in place for the disclosure of sexual harassment to HR or designated staff.

WGEA CEO Mary Woolridge said this is a positive step forward, but there is a lot more that needs to be done.

“While we are seeing comprehensive policy coverage, this is only a critical first step,” Woolridge said.

“Long-term cultural change within organisations also requires employees and company leaders to know the policy, understand what’s in it and the part they play in its implementation.”

The data shows that while most CEOs are closely involved with developing and signing off on these policies, most of them don’t make their way to the board level.

While 85 per cent of companies had their CEOs be highly engaged in reviewing, signing off on and communicating these policies, just 55 per cent of boards are as closely involved.

“Our results indicate CEOs and boards can play more of a role in proactively enabling a safe and respectful culture by communicating the employer’s expectations more regularly to all employees,” the WGEA report said.

Lack of data collection

The data shows that nearly a third of all organisations – 28 per cent – do not collect data on how often sexual harassment is occurring within their workforce.

Of those that are collecting data, 64 per cent record the number of formal complaints made in a year, while less than one in three record the genders of those involved in the complaints.

“Where safe and practicable to do so, employers should collect and use prevalence information to better understand experiences of sexual harassment in their workplace, as well as across industries, to identify areas requiring action,” the report said.

While most of the reporting Australian organisations have a process in place to report sexual harassment, less than 70 per cent have anonymous disclosure processes available to employees.

“The ability to protect a reporter’s identity with anonymous disclosure is important, given widespread underreporting of these serious issues,” the report said.

WGEA also called for organisations to more regularly inform employees of their policies in relation to sexual harassment and of the positive duty that is now in place, with only a quarter of CEOs communicating the expectations with new staff upon induction, and less than 10 per cent doing so before a big event such as the Christmas party.

The majority of reporting companies are providing training to their workforce, typically upon induction or annually, but only 70 per cent cover the drivers and contributing factors of sexual harassment.

The gender pay gap

Earlier this year WGEA released the first tranche of gender pay gap data, covering private companies with more than 100 employees.

This revealed an overall median gender pay gap for salary of 14.5 per cent, which rose to 19 per cent when bonuses and overtime were taken into account.

Six out of 10 reporting companies had a gender pay gap of more than 5 per cent in favour of men.

The agency has also focused on the “part-time promotion cliff”, with just over 20 per cent of all employees in Australia working part-time, but just 7 per cent of managers working part-time.

WGEA said this means there is often little career progression and opportunities for Australians who want or need to work part-time.