{"id":138,"date":"2015-03-13T01:13:10","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T01:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helencarter.com.au\/?p=138"},"modified":"2016-01-14T22:58:58","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T22:58:58","slug":"sexual-harassment-is-it-time-to-stop-shooting-the-messenger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/?p=138","title":{"rendered":"Sexual Harassment – are we shooting the messenger?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Gabrielle McMullin has faced fierce criticism<\/a> for recent comments that females seeking a careers as surgeons should not speak out against sexual harassment. \u00a0Her message was that while vicitms of this type of harassment may have a valid legal claim, making a complaint is likely to destroy their careers. \u00a0 Some commentators described her comments as “a kick in the guts to workplace gender equality<\/a>.” \u00a0While I completely agree that the content of her message was clearly troubling, is her decision to speak in realistic and truthful terms about this issue deserve such condemnation? \u00a0Or are we simply shooting the messenger?<\/p>\n

Purists may argue\u00a0that\u00a0Dr McMullin’s suggestions impliedly condone the \u00a0‘casting couch’culture within the medical professional, and that female trainee surgeons following her advice to stay quiet are each individually responsible for pushing the problem even \u00a0further from a solution. \u00a0Many would even argue\u00a0that each woman’s acquiescence\u00a0\u00a0with harassment is as morally reprehensible\u00a0than the impugned conduct itself. \u00a0This may be the case, but I tend to disagree. \u00a0If the surgical career\u00a0of a female genuinely faces ruin from standing up to sexual harassment then we should be talking about it, not brushing it under the table. \u00a0And women in this situation are not individually responsible for the gender equality fight, at the expense of their own professional success. \u00a0At the very least,\u00a0a senior female industry practitioner should be entitled to be realistic and honest about the choices of young\u00a0professionals in her industry. \u00a0With so many gender equality issues at work, as I mentioned\u00a0on this previous post<\/a>, discussion of the issues in purely abstract terms can only be effective as a starting point. \u00a0There is an inherent conflict between broad notions of right and wrong in social terms, and the individuals choices within the context of their own lives or careers. \u00a0Denying the existence of this conflict does not make it go away.<\/p>\n

Employees\u00a0are protected to a certain extent against sexual discrimination in the workplace, both by the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work Acts. \u00a0\u00a0Historically, the damages awarded have been far less than sufficient, but there have been positive signs that this is also changing.<\/p>\n

The problem in this scenario lies with the employees having only very \u00a0faint legal protection against adverse action AFTER making a complaint. \u00a0The General Protections in the Fair Work Act are good laws in principle, \u00a0providing that it is unlawful to take adverse action against an employee or prospective employee for exercising, or proposing to exercise, a workplace right. \u00a0 Dr McMullin’s example of ‘Caroline’, a doctor who’s career was ruined when she made a complaint of sexual harassment, should have been protected by this provision. \u00a0Those various individuals in the surgical profession that were blocking\u00a0her career progress\u00a0because of her earlier complaints\u00a0were clearly in breach. \u00a0 \u00a0The problem is that \u00a0the provisions are too easy to circumvent. \u00a0At present, employers breaching the General Protections are generally only caught\u00a0because they didn’t know about the provisions before taking the adverse action. \u00a0 But a sophisticated employers \u00a0(who are well advised legally), find it\u00a0too easy \u00a0to protect themselves from allegations of adverse action, by setting up or fabricating legitimate reasons for their \u00a0actions in advance. \u00a0 These provisions are\u00a0where we should be putting our attention.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, we should hold off on\u00a0moral judgements of other people facing tough circumstances. \u00a0 We shouldn’t be critical of those choosing to keep quiet to limit\u00a0damage\u00a0of their careers, especially when evidence is so strong that this damage is likely. \u00a0 And senior female practitioners, such as Dr McMullin, should be entitled to speak freely about the realities of their profession, without bearing responsibility for the core issues at fault.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* Helen Carter is the Director and founding solicitor at PCC Lawyers<\/a>,\u00a0a team of employment practitioners based in Sydney, with many years of combined knowledge and experience in workplace law, industrial relations, workplace investigations and training. \u00a0They provide a high standard of excellence and an exceptional level of personal service to a variety of clients in the Sydney metropolitan area, Central Coast, regional NSW and interstate.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Gabrielle McMullin has faced fierce criticism for recent comments that females seeking a careers as surgeons should not speak out against sexual harassment. \u00a0Her message was that while vicitms of this type of harassment may have a valid legal claim, making a complaint is likely to destroy their careers. \u00a0 Some commentators described her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}