Assessment, control, consultation part of new code for Commonwealth employers
BY Angela Weber, Cilla Robinson, Jade Saunders, Alex Armstrong-Millar, Lauren Cooper, Samantha Kotsakis 21 May 2025
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On 5 March 2025, the former Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Murray Watt, approved the Work Health and Safety (Sexual and Gender-based Harassment) Code of Practice 2025.
The code, which is now in force, is intended to provide practical guidance to persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) as to the management of health and safety risks arising from sexual and gender-based harassment at work.
Though as a matter of law the code applies to entities under the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) (the WHS Act) only, companies in all Australian jurisdictions face more scrutiny than ever from safety regulators as to their sexual harassment prevention framework. This makes the code an important source of guidance for all employers.
The code largely represents the adoption of Safe Work Australia’s Model Code of Practice for the federal work health and safety (WHS) jurisdiction and reflects significant progress in implementing recommendation 35 of former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins' Respect@Work Report in 2020: “WHS ministers agree to amend the model WHS Regulation to deal with psychological health, as recommended by the Boland Review, and develop guidelines on sexual harassment with a view to informing the development of a...
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