But she said servers would also be trained to avoid risks “rather than plastering the walls with ‘this abuse won’t be tolerated’” messaging.
Gillespie said Bakers Delight had received sexual harassment complaints from staff in the past, but they were isolated incidents and she was confident they had been dealt with appropriately.
The federal government has pledged to fully implement the recommendations of Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins’ Respect@Work report.
Among the recommendations, Jenkins called for the Sex Discrimination Act to be amended to include a positive onus on employers to prevent workplace sexual harassment, rather than relying on complaints.
Bakers Delight has agreed with the watchdog to rectify the failings over 12 months, including by providing a 16-week training program for prospective franchisees, and developing a policy on dealing with the potential movement of perpetrators between stores.
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However, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission must go to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to give it the power of a court-enforced order.
The agreement will be published in a move to increase the accountability of the employers’ undertakings.
The commission’s general counsel, Emily Howie, said it hoped the investigation would raise awareness among employers that they needed to be proactive to prevent sexual harassment rather than just reacting when it occurred.
Howie said while Bakers Delight had been a “very co-operative party”, the investigative and enforcement powers of the Victorian agency and a future federal model should be given more teeth.
“I think if governments take preventing sexual harassment seriously and want to make sexual harassment more enforceable, and if they do really want to remove that burden from people who suffer harm, then we need to increase the regulatory powers given to commissions like ours,” she said.
“It would give us powers to compel attendance and documents without the need to get an order from VCAT,” she said, adding it could also include the power to issue infringement notices.
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