- ‘Zero Tolerance’ project aims to prevent workplace sexual harassment
- Promotes safer workplaces for women from migrant and refugee backgrounds
- Multicultural Services Centre of Western Australia awarded $100,000 grant
- Initiative funded through Women’s Grants for a Stronger Future Program
A new project to prevent workplace sexual harassment for women from migrant and refugee backgrounds launches today with a $100,000 grant from the State Government.
Funded through the Women’s Grants for a Stronger Future Program, the Zero Tolerance initiative will be delivered by the Multicultural Services Centre of Western Australia to promote safe, respectful, and inclusive workplaces for culturally and linguistically diverse women.
The project will establish an online information hub with specialised support and referrals for migrant and refugee women who experience sexual harassment.
Zero Tolerance will provide training programs to help raise awareness, reduce barriers to reporting incidents in the workplace and contribute to preventing gender-based violence in the community.
MSCWA staff will undergo training to deliver information on workers’ rights, including workplace sexual harassment.
The initiative will also provide free access to interpreters to people whose first language is not English if they are involved in a workplace sexual harassment complaint.
The project aligns with recommendations from the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National InquiryReport (2020), which found that 39 per cent of women had experienced workplace sexual harassment in the past five years.
The Commission found that migrant and refugee women were more likely than the general population to experience sexual harassment.
The Multicultural Services Centre of Western Australia was one of 14 community organisations to receive funding through the Women’s Grants for a Stronger Future program earlier this year.
Total program funding was increased from $85,000 to $335,000, with grants spread across the priority areas of women’s health and wellbeing, economic independence, safety and justice to align with the State Government’s Stronger Together: WA’s Plan for Gender Equality.
As stated by Women’s Interests Minister Sue Ellery:
“Women should be safe and respected at work and have the appropriate access to services and support if they experience sexual harassment at the workplace.
“The Cook Government is committed to supporting women from all backgrounds and will continue to support efforts and community organisations that push back against inappropriate workplace behaviour.
“We still have a long road ahead to address issues of inequity in the workplace – a challenge that has been accepted by Multicultural Services Centre of WA’s “Zero Tolerance” project and other grant recipients.”
Comments attributed to MSCWA Chairperson Sheila Rajan:
“Our “Zero Tolerance”: Creating safe, respectful, and inclusive workplaces for women project will effectively address the key concerns that impact culturally and linguistically diverse women in Western Australia. We are looking forward to working with a range of stakeholders to implement this important project, which aims to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
“In the decades of my involvement with the multicultural sector I can’t recall an occasion where a multicultural services provider has been by far the largest single beneficiary of a grants program. So, this is a very historic occasion, and we commend the Cook Labor Government and Women’s Interests Minister Sue Ellery.”
