Australian business leaders are calling for a major shakeup to workplace sexual harassment policies

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Management and boards of top-listed companies dealing with sexual harassment complaints need to be upfront about what the perpetrators did rather than cover it up and silence the victims, according to a new report that calls on corporate Australia to rethink its approach.

Workplace sexual harassment has been back under the spotlight following cases coming to light around the world because of the #MeToo movement, as well as recent complaints against senior men at QBE and AMP that have been widely covered in the media.

More than 250 Australian business leaders have signed a new guidance report calling for major changes to the way sexual harassment is managed in the workplace. The Disrupting the System report launched on Thursday by the Male Champions of Change coalition (MCC) is the culmination of two years work and input from hundreds of male CEOs and board members.

MCC founder Elizabeth Broderick said employers need to make prevention of sexual harassment a top priority. If you think it's something that can just be treated as a small workplace grievance, you need to think again. These issues require the attention of the most senior leaders in organisations and those that fail to heed that message will actually find that there's a level of scrutiny on them that they may not have seen in the past.

The MCC made five key recommendations, including treating sexual harassment as a workplace health and safety issue reducing the use of non-disclosure agreements, and promoting gender equality.

Ms Broderick said, It's definitely about giving the victim more of a voice and recognising that's important for two reasons for the healing process that has to occur, but also so that organisations and Australia as a country learns by listening to the stories.

James Fazzino, chair of Manufacturing Australia, was a co-convenor of the group and said disrupting the system requires a major rethink on how sexual harassment is managed.

He said, I think the report actually takes a very different approach to sexual harassment and it starts by saying firstly what we’ve done in the past hasn’t worked. It means setting the standards at zero tolerance investigating all cases of harassment and looking for the systemic cultural drivers that allow sexual harassment to occur ... and put in place prevention.

Ms Jenkins said she fully supports the MCC's recommendations. iry led by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, the MCC report aims to give workplaces simple actions for driving change.

Ms Jenkins said she fully supports the MCC's recommendations. What I think is great about it is that it absolutely uses the most current best practice thinking and it distills it into something that’s really practical for organisations to put into place pretty quickly.

Ms Jenkins said she's hopeful the MCC report will encourage more people to come forward. This report really recognises the power dynamic where the employer is the one with the money and can set conditions on what a settlement would look like.

Mr Fazzino agreed the time is right for change. I think standards have changed and you see that with the #MeToo movement and you also see that with some of the recent cases of corporate harassment in Australia and so the bar’s been lifted. The other thing and the big difference here is we’re seeing it as a health and safety issue, not as a legal issue. It goes to the heart of your culture and your values - this occurs primarily to women but they’re women that we collectively employ and their health and safety comes first.

The MCC said it hopes the report will set a new standard for all organisations across Australia and the world. According to a 2018 AHRC survey, one in three Australian workers said they had been sexually harassed in the previous five years but only 17 per cent of those people made a complaint.