Revisiting vicarious liability in sexual harassment cases heard under the Sex Discrimination Act

Title
Revisiting vicarious liability in sexual harassment cases heard under the Sex Discrimination Act
Publication Date
2020-03
Author(s)
Easteal, Patricia
Saunders, Skye
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3358-9937
Email: rsaund22@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:rsaund22
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Sage Publications Ltd
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1177/1037969X19877736
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/51856
Abstract

This article considers recent trends in the judicial interpretation of workplace vicarious liability provisions with respect to sexual harassment matters under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (SDA). In a study undertaken by the authors in 2008, we found that the Federal Court and Federal Magistrates Court appeared to be taking a 'broad-brush' approach in interpreting employers' duty to take 'all reasonable steps' to prevent sexual harassment and defining 'in connection with employment'. The authors update that analysis and evaluate a sample of cases from 2011 to 2018, concluding that it is possible the Courts are approaching these legislative elements of vicarious liability with an increasingly narrow brush.

Link
Citation
Alternative Law Journal, 45(1), p. 38-44
ISSN
2398-9084
1037-969X
Start page
38
End page
44

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