A jokey site culture didn't save this employer when the harassment finding landed
An employer's "everyone jokes around here" defence collapsed when a court found two harassment incidents proven.
The Federal Court of Australia has found that a carpentry apprentice was sexually harassed on a remote building site, and that her employer must answer for it. The liability decision, handed down on June 12, 2026, is a sharp lesson for HR and industrial relations leads on harassment, vicarious liability and payroll discipline.
The worker, a full-time adult apprentice carpenter, joined a South Australian construction company in April 2023. She was rostered to a fly-in, fly-out site on Kangaroo Island and to jobs around Adelaide. She was the only woman on the island crew.
Her case under the Fair Work Act was broad. She said two co-workers harassed her, that the firm pulled her off the island site partly because of her sex, and that she had been underpaid across wages, allowances and entitlements.
The court did not accept all of it. The outcome was mixed - but the parts she won matter.
The judge found two harassment incidents proven, both involving the same site supervisor. In one, the court found it "significantly more probable" that the supervisor asked the apprentice "whether she would give him a blowjob, or words to that effect." The judge called it "a serious finding to make" against him, but was satisfied on the balance of probabilities that it happened. In a second incident,...
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