New code of practice on workplace sexual and gender-based harassment

Guidance for employers on minimising risks of sexual and gender-based harassment

The Australian Government has approved a new Work Health and Safety (Sexual and Gender-based Harassment) Code of Practice 2025 which provides practical guidance to employers on how they can identify, manage and minimise risks of sexual and gender-based harassment at work.

In this Insight, we delve into the key aspects of this Code, including:

• the four-step risk management process
• the importance of leadership in fostering respectful workplaces
• best practices for conducting fair and sensitive investigations.

We also highlight the necessity of ongoing consultation with employees and maintaining robust documentation to ensure compliance with WHS laws.

Key takeaways

• The Code provides practical guidance for employers on how to protect their workforce from workplace sexual harassment and meet their obligations under Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws.
• Employers should apply a risk management process to eliminate or minimise the risk of sexual and gender-based harassment, involving identifying hazards, assessing risks, implementing control measures, and maintaining and reviewing control measures to ensure they are effective.
• The Code recognises that leaders play a key role in creating safe, respectful workplaces that proactively manage sexual and gender-based harassment risks. Organisational culture should prioritise diversity, inclusion and respect to prevent harassment.
• While the Code is not law, it can be used in courts as evidence of what is known about a hazard, risk or control, and may be used when courts are deciding what is reasonable in the circumstances.

The Code in context

The Australian Government's new Work Health and Safety (Sexual and Gender-based Harassment) Code of Practice 2025 (the Code) offers comprehensive guidelines to help employers proactively prevent and address workplace harassment.

The Code complements the positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sexual harassment at work.

The Code is based on Safe Work Australia's model code and implements recommendation 35 of the Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report 2020.

The Code should be read and applied with the Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work) Code of Practice 2024. Sexual and gender-based harassment often occurs alongside or interacts with other psychosocial hazards.

Employers should follow a risk management process

The Code focuses primarily on a four step risk management process that employers should use to proactively eliminate or minimise the risk of sexual and gender-based harassment as far as reasonably practicable. Under this process, employers should:

1. Identify hazards: including by considering when, where and how sexual and gender-based harassment could occur, the nature of the harassment and who is most likely to be affected by it.
2. Assess risks: understand the nature of the harm that the hazard could cause, how serious the harm could be and the likelihood of it happening. Consider the duration and frequency the employee is exposed to the risk and the severity of the harassment.
3. Control risks: implement the most effective control measures that are reasonably practicable in the circumstances and ensure that they remain effective over time. Control measures should be tailored to the organisation's size, type, work activities, location and workforce.
4. Maintaining and regularly reviewing control measures: control measures are not a 'set and forget' exercise. Control measures should be regularly reviewed to ensure they are effective. The person reviewing the control measures should have the authority and resources to conduct thorough reviews and be empowered to recommend changes.

The Code also suggests that employers keep an updated record of their risk management process and outcomes to demonstrate the work done to meet work health and safety duties.

Importantly, input from the workforce is a key part of compliance. Employers must consult employees and health and safety representatives at each step of the risk management process. Employers are encouraged to consider whether existing consultation arrangements are appropriate for identifying, assessing and controlling sexual and gender-based harassment.

Investigating risks and reports of harassment

The Code also addresses 'good practice' in relation to investigations concerning sexual or gender-based harassment. Internal WHS investigations should be conducted to identify risks of sexual or gender-based harassment and whether there are more effective or reliable control measures available. Investigations should not be limited to circumstances where formal complaints have been made.

Investigations should be fair, transparent, and timely.

Allegations of sexual harassment, by their nature, require that considerable care is taken when navigating through the investigation. The Code addresses this by recommending that investigations are informed by a non-biased, culturally sensitive and trauma-informed approach. A trauma-informed approach might consider whether:

• the investigation takes into account the emotional safety and wellbeing of affected employees;
• the process ensures respect and acknowledges diversity and inclusion; and
• the process ensures all employees involved are kept informed in a timely manner.

Employees should have access to support throughout an investigation and their privacy and confidentiality should be protected. Where an investigation is triggered by an employee's report of harassment, appropriate information about the outcome of the investigation should be provided to them.

Investigations should be undertaken by impartial investigators with the skills to identify sexual and gender-based harassment and to assess the risks and recommend appropriate controls. If an internal investigator is not available, employers should select an external investigator with relevant experience and a trauma-informed approach.

Leadership and culture crucial to minimising and managing risks 

The Code recognises the important role that leaders play in fostering safe and respectful workplaces that are proactive in managing risks. The Code provides that leaders should:

• understand the prevalence, nature and drivers of sexual and gender-based harassment. Meaningful and contextual training for leaders on sexual and gender-based harassment is one of the keys to achieving this understanding;
• ensure that their organisations have effective communication processes to maintain their awareness of the workplace risks and take proactive steps to ensure those risks are addressed;
• make sure that organisational priorities demonstrate a commitment to prevent harassment; and
• take practical steps to ensure an organisational culture that does not tolerate workplace sexual and gender-based harassment. This might include ensuring that recruitment and workplace policies value respectful behaviour and diversity, that reports of harassment are taken seriously with timely and supportive responses and that social activities are inclusive and appropriate.