By Cat Woods -
Working women in NSW had reason to celebrate with the recent launch of the Working Women's Centre NSW. For close to 20 years, the state has lacked a central service provider to meet the needs of working women facing problems with their workplace or the terms of their employment.
While sexual harassment cases in white collar workplaces or government snare headlines, there are many situations in which women feel powerless to challenge their employer. This might be because their contract stipulated non-disclosure, the financial commitment of fighting their employer in court, or not comprehending the pathways of recourse they have.
That’s where the WWC plays a fundamental role. The national WWC – uniting eight branches representing each state and territory – takes the lead on advocacy, campaigns, submissions towards policy and legislation, and educational resources. Each of the branches caters to the working women within their state or territory.
And there’s demand. The 2022 national survey Time for Respect, carried out by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), reported that more than 40 per cent of women have been the victim of workplace sexual harassment, and certain demographics are disproportionately affected, including Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander women, LGBTGQI+ individuals, and women aged 15 to 29. Over half of all First Nations women, and nearly half of young women had experienced workplace sexual harassment, making the risk of going to work an unbearable prospect for many.
Sharmilla Bargon is the Legal Director of the Working Women’s Centre NSW at Women’s Legal Service NSW (WLSNSW).
She explains, “With my colleague Kellie McDonald, we lead our legal, education and advocacy work across the state. Our team of specialist employment and discrimination lawyers provide direct legal services helping women navigate workplace issues like sexual harassment, discrimination and wage theft. We work closely with our national peak, WWCA, to identify emerging issues from our casework and turn those insights into law reform, training and policy change.”
Nationally, the focus of WWCA is on ensuring that all working women, no matter where they live or what kind of work they do, have access to free, specialist workplace rights advice.
Bargon says, “We prioritise advocacy to make workplaces safer and more equitable, particularly for women in insecure, low-paid and high-risk industries. In NSW, those priorities are the same.”
Economic cost
A world-first 2019 report by Deloitte focused on the costs of workplace sexual harassment to the broader economy. Those facing financial losses included victims, perpetrators, and colleagues, along with employers, the government, and taxpayers. These costs include lost productivity, healthcare, pursuing complaints processes and investigations, prosecutions, and the future earning potential of the victims. The finding that sexual harassment costs the Australian economy $3.8 billion a year, was based on a prior AHRC report in which there were less cases reported. It’s fair to think that cost has blown out substantially since 2019.
At the WWC NSW, Bargon says, “Women most commonly seek help about workplace sexual harassment, gendered discrimination, unpaid wages, and dismissals. We often hear from women with overlapping issues such as visa insecurity and family violence.”
“… we know many women value face-to-face legal services, particularly in trauma-sensitive matters.”
Most clients first make contact with the service online or by phone.
She says, “Our first advice is generally given over the phone to make access easier for women juggling work, caring responsibilities or shift work. But we’re also building our in-person outreach in regional and community settings, because we know many women value face-to-face legal services, particularly in trauma-sensitive matters.”
Understanding rights and enforcing them
The removal of cost barriers is life-changing, Bargon explains.
“Offering free, trauma-informed specialist legal help by women for women is transformative. It allows women who would otherwise fall through the cracks to understand and enforce their rights,” she tells LSJ Online.
“The women who struggle most to access legal advice are often the same ones most at risk of exploitation or harassment: migrant women, First Nations women, young women in hospitality and retail, and women about to go on or return from parental leave. Free and specialist services remove the financial barrier, rebalances the power disparity between well-resourced employers and workers, and gives our clients a voice and pathway to justice.”
While predatory employment behaviour (ending a contract during maternity leave, for example) and workplace sexual harassment have continued to plague victims, often long after they have left the workplace, the support for free and professional legal advice and support has waxed and waned over the last 50 years.
History of Working Women’s Centres
The first WWC was opened in Victoria in 1975, followed by South Australia in 1979. Over 1993/94, the Federal Government dedicated funding to the newly launched WWCs in Queensland, Northern Territory, NSW, and Tasmania. However, the introduction of Howard government’s WorkChoices Act in March 2006 coincided with the closures of both the NSW and Tasmanian WWCs. The current government’s $32 million commitment to the national and state and territory branches in 2022 was a boost, leading to the establishment of the national peak body, WWCA, in 2024.
The WWC is supported by the Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, through the Working Women’s Centre Grant Program. The NSW branch is supported by the NSW Government, through the Cabinet Office and Women NSW.
It is not solely sexual harassment that may warrant contact. Women might seek advice for underpayment, discriminatory behaviour in relation to pregnancy and breastfeeding, caring or family obligations (i.e. disallowing flexibility where it’s feasible), or sexual and other forms of discrimination.
The current nationwide campaign, Our Silence is Not For Sale, focuses on NDAs and ending the proliferation and misuse of such agreements, along with other forms of strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP), including gag laws and defamation threats.
Bargon says, “From research I did at the University of Sydney, we know that NDAs are misused in resolving workplace sexual harassment matters across the country, as set out in the report I co-published: Let’s Talk about Confidentiality. Victim-survivors of workplace sexual harassment often feel pressured into confidentiality clauses that silence them and protect perpetrators and employers. We know many legal practitioners treat NDAs as standard and fail to advise that these clauses are optional. WLSNSW supports national reform to regulate NDAs so that women can make informed choices about whether they want an NDAs, with independent legal advice and clear limits on secrecy.”
One of the key speakers at the launch of the WWC NSW was former Australian Defence Force (ADF) employee Julia Delaforce. Earlier this year, she revealed her experience of being silenced by a confidential settlement with the ADF over sexual abuse claims.
“It isn’t just symbolic for me; it’s personal.”
In 2010, her internal complaint, then a further complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission, was pivotal in the 2011 inquiry into the treatment of women within the ADF. Delaforce was sexually harassed at knifepoint by a drunken senior male corporal in a NSW military base. Her superiors then ordered Delaforce to drive him home.
She tells LSJ Online, “It feels deeply empowering, but also profoundly humbling to be standing at the launch of the Working Women’s Centre NSW. It isn’t just symbolic for me; it’s personal.”
She adds, “After years of being silenced under an NDA, to finally be able to stand publicly and speak my truth, surrounded by allies who believe in transparency and justice, feels validating of my experience and not just for myself, but for every woman who’s been told to stay quiet ‘for the good of the organisation.’”
Delaforce says, “Events like this matter because they represent hope and real change. Having free, accessible legal advice and support can be the difference between a woman finding her voice or losing it.”
Impact of non-disclosure agreements
After the incident, she followed every official process available to her, only for her complaint to be swept under the carpet. She eventually reported directly to the Australian Human Rights Centre under an ADF Whistleblower Policy.
“Since speaking out and creating an online petition to ban the NDA, I have been approached by hundreds of people who are confined by their NDAs, some of them simply relieved just to talk about the actual employee NDA without disclosing their story which shows the level of impact the NDA has had on them.”
Delaforce had sought and was not permitted to partake publicly (written or witness) in the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. Other women have experienced the same results as a result of their NDAs.
“It is because of women like [these] that still feel trapped by their perpetrators and silenced by their employers that I fought to have my NDA removed, and I will continue to fight for them until we ban the NDA here in Australia.”
Unmet legal need
In February this year, Women’s Legal Services Australia published national data that showed an estimated 1,000 women each week, or 52,000 women a year, are turned away from services due to a lack of capacity.
Women’s Legal Services Australia Chair, Elena Rosenman, called it “a national crisis”.
The NSW Government has invested $8 million over four years in the Centre, which has also received $8.1 million over five years in Commonwealth funding. Women’s Legal Service NSW is responsible for the delivery of the Centre.
The Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work Report (2020) recommended all jurisdictions establish or re-establish working women’s centres. Duly, the Commonwealth Government has committed a total of $32 million over five years to both fund existing working women centres, or to establish them, in all states and territories. This includes funding for the national body, WWC Australia.
In a media statement, NSW Minister for Industrial Relations Sophie Cotsis said, “The recently established NSW Anti-Bullying and Sexual Harassment jurisdiction allows for the order of damages for more than 400,000 NSW Government workers in hospitals, schools, local councils and other public services.”
These workers can now seek orders and damages from the NSW Industrial Relations Commission to stop workplace bullying and sexual harassment.
In the same statement, Women’s Legal Service CEO, Katrina Ironside, said, “For the first time, women across NSW will have access to a dedicated, free service for legal assistance on workplace issues that disproportionately affect them and compound inequality.”
Main image, award-winning journalist Tracey Spicer AM (left) with Julia Delaforce at the launch of the Working Women’s Centre. (Image supplied)
