WORKPLACE SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN BRITAIN AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA

ANWAR N. KHAN AND JACOBA HOHNEN

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DOI: 10.2190/ML5C-EYNP-B738-WVXE

Abstract

Both in Britain and the state of Western Australia, statutory or judicial recognition of the undesirability and illegality of sexual harassment at the workplace came late. While the British Sex Discrimination Act, proscribing discrimination on the grounds of sex, was passed in 1975, it was only in 1984 that the Western Australian legislature enacted the Equal Opportunity Act. However, this latter Act, in addition to making sex discrimination unlawful unlike the British Legislation, explicitly prohibited sexual harassment. The interpretation of the British Act has now included sexual harassment in the definition of sex discrimination. Thus, both pieces of legislation forbid, and provide for remedies against, sexual harassment. This article examines the relevant British developments and then analyzes the Western Australian developments.

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