Sexual Harassment — Employees

Scope

The Policy applies to all Department employees in schools, central and regional offices, including:

• the Secretary and Deputy Secretaries
• Executive Officers, managers and principals
• employees (ongoing, fixed term, casual)

The Policy applies to all of the Department’s workplaces, including any location that employees may be considered to be carrying out duties in the course of their employment. This may include but is not limited to conduct that occurs:

• in a taxi or work car travelling to an appointment (for example, meeting or school visit)
• at a team lunch
• at any after-hours work-related social function (for example, Christmas party)
• in an off-site training session facilitated by a third party
• on a school excursion
• at a conference
• across the Department’s IT channels including eduMail, Compass, Polycom and SharePoint
• on social media platforms (for example, Facebook)

This Policy applies when engaging with other employees, clients or members of the public encountered in the course of working duties.

It is not the intention of this Policy to interfere in personal lives and relationships between consenting employees, which is not a form of sexual harassment.

The Department has an obligation to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace. The effect of sexual harassment on those people involved can range from annoyance to deep distress and can lead to an intimidating, hostile and offensive work environment. This can contribute to reduced quality of work, low productivity and morale, distraction from work, absenteeism, poor health and high staff turnover.