Workplace harassment: what every manager needs to know
Debbie Morrison • January 15, 2021

Workplace harassment: what every manager needs to know

In recent decades, Australian businesses have become increasingly sensitive to instances of workplace discrimination, harassment and bullying. Whereas not so long ago the bulk of workplace issues and conflicts were typically left to be ‘managed’ in-house, nowadays things are considerably different, forcing CEOs and HR departments to walk a delicate tightrope on an almost daily basis.


In part, the attitudinal changes have been driven by the digital enlightenment of employees, who are more empowered and alert to their individual rights than ever before. The media also plays a role, with coverage of workplace harassment becoming increasingly frequent – not surprising given literally thousands of cases find their way before either the courts or Fair Work Australia each year. (Just some of the higher profile workplace harassment cases include respected organisations such the Australian Federal Police, the NSW Ambulance Service, Australian Defence Force, retailer David Jones and former High Court judge Dyson Heydon, who had action taken against him earlier this year following claims of sexual harassment).


The rapidly escalating public presence and marketing campaigns of ‘no win no fee’ legal firms is further emboldening more Australian employees to stand up to errant bosses, whereas in the past they may have felt too scared to do so.


This is not necessarily a bad thing. While clearly some cases are spurious and opportunistic at best, many more are not. Employers are on notice. Do the wrong thing and be prepared to face the consequences, both legal and financial.


By far the most prudent course of action is to prevent workplace harassment long before it happens. However, this can be easier said than done. Engaging a workplace and HR specialist such as ELR Executive may be invaluable in helping you navigate – and mitigate – the many potential pitfalls and risks. Below are just some of the specific areas we can assist you with.


1) What is ‘workplace harassment’? You can’t plan for something unless you fully understand it. The modern definition of workplace harassment goes far beyond what many employers realise. Yes, it includes instances of racial or sexual discrimination and physical bullying against employees. But it also extends into more complex areas such as psychological bullying, cyber bullying, pregnancy discrimination, LGBT employees, ageism, disabilities and respecting the religious sensitivities of individual workers.


​ 2) Understanding your Duty of Care. Many employers are surprised to learn they have a common law duty of care to their employees that encompasses a wide range of workplace harassment behaviours. Australian employers can be prosecuted for failing to meet this duty under state laws as well as anti-bullying legislation included in the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Fair Work Regulations 2009.


3) All reasonable steps. In the event of a workplace harassment claim being brought against your business or management team, the onus is likely to fall upon you to prove ‘all reasonable steps’ had been taken to prevent that employee from being subject to the harassing behaviour in question. Time and again one of the most critical factors in doing this includes having a thorough and universally-communicated anti-harassment policy that clearly defines unacceptable behaviours, outlines the sanctions for breaches, details the steps for making complaints and explains the resolution process. How well does your business currently do this?


4) New employees . While it’s essential to ensure your existing employees set the tone and culture when it comes to respectful and inclusive workplace behaviours, don’t forget new employees. How do you ensure your newest team members are well aware of what is and isn’t acceptable, both for their own benefit and that of their new colleagues? If this isn’t a formal part of your induction process, it really should be.


5) Don’t let one problem lead to another . By their very nature, harassment and bullying cases can be disruptive for a workplace. Whatever the ultimate outcome, it’s important to be aware subsequent rumours and gossip could make an already unfortunate situation even worse for your business and/or your employees. Keep a careful and respectful eye on things and move to manage any new workplace issues as quickly as possible.


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The Quiet Collapse of Australian Vegetable Farming

By John Elliott • June 26, 2025
You don’t hear about it on the nightly news. There’s no breaking story. No panic. No protests. Just rows of vegetables being pulled out of the ground with no plan to replant. Just farmers who no longer believe there’s a future for them here. Just quiet decisions — to sell, to walk away, to stop. And if you ask around the industry, they’ll tell you the same thing: It’s not just one bad season. It’s a slow death by a thousand margins. 1 in 3 growers are preparing to leaveIn September 2024, AUSVEG released a national sentiment report with a statistic that should have set off alarms in every capital city: 34% of Australian vegetable growers were considering exiting the industry in the next 12 months. Another one-third said they’d leave if offered a fair price for their farm. Source: AUSVEG Industry Sentiment Report 2024 (PDF) These aren’t abstract hypotheticals. These are real decisions, already in motion. For many, it’s not about profitability anymore, it’s about survival. This isn’t burnout. It’s entrapment. Behind the numbers are people whose entire identity is tied to a profession that no longer feeds them. Many are asset-rich but cash-poor. They own the land. But the land owns them back. Selling means walking away from decades of history. Staying means bleeding capital, month by month, in a system where working harder delivers less. Every year, input costs rise, fuel, fertiliser, compliance. But the farmgate price doesn’t move. Or worse, it drops. Retail World Magazine reports that even though national vegetable production increased 3% in 2023–24, the total farmgate value fell by $140 million. Growers produced more and earned less. That’s not a market. That’s a trap. What no one wants to say aloud The truth is this: many growers are only staying because they can’t leave. If you’re deep in debt, if your farm is tied to multi-generational ownership, if you’ve invested everything in equipment, infrastructure, or land access, walking away isn’t easy. It’s a last resort. So instead, you stay. You cut your hours. Delay maintenance. Avoid upgrades. Cancel the next round of planting. You wait for something to shift, interest rates, weather, prices and you pretend that waiting is strategy. According to the latest fruitnet.com survey, over 50% of vegetable growers say they’re financially worse off than a year ago. And nearly 40% expect conditions to deteriorate further. This isn’t about optimism or resilience. It’s about dignity and the quiet erosion of it. Supermarkets won’t save them, and they never planned to In the current model, supermarket pricing doesn’t reflect real-world farm economics. Retailers demand year-round consistency, aesthetic perfection, and lower prices. They don’t absorb rising input costs, they externalise them. They offer promotions funded not by their marketing budgets, but by the growers’ margins. Farmers take the risk. Retailers take the profit. And because the power imbalance is so deeply entrenched, there’s no real negotiation, just quiet coercion dressed up as "category planning." Let’s talk about what’s actually broken This isn’t just a market failure. It’s a policy failure. Australia’s horticulture system has been built on: Decades of deregulated wholesale markets Lack of collective bargaining power for growers Retailer consolidation that has created a virtual duopoly Export-focused incentives that bypass smaller domestic producers There’s no meaningful floor price for key produce lines. No national enforcement of fair dealing. No public database that links supermarket shelf price to farmgate return. Which means growers, like James, can be driven into loss-making supply contracts without ever seeing the true economics of their product downstream. But the real silence? It’s from consumers. Here’s what no one wants to admit: We say we care about “buying local.” We say we value the farmer’s role. We share those viral posts about strawberries going unsold or milk prices being unfair. And then we complain about a $4 lettuce. We opt for the cheapest bag of carrots. We walk past the "imperfect" produce bin. We frown at the cost of organic and click “Add to Cart” on whatever’s half price. We’re not just bystanders. We’re part of the equation. What happens when the growers go? At first, very little. Supermarkets will find substitutes. Importers will fill gaps. Large agribusinesses will expand into spaces vacated by smaller players. Prices will stay low, until they don’t. But over time, we’ll notice: Produce that travels further and lasts less. Fewer independent growers at farmer’s markets. Entire regions losing their growing identity. National food security becoming a campaign promise instead of a reality. And when the climate throws something serious at us, drought, flood, global supply shock, we’ll realise how little resilience we’ve preserved. So what do we do? We start by telling the truth. Australia is not food secure. Not if 1 in 3 growers are planning to exit. The market isn’t working. Not when prices rise at the shelf and fall at the farmgate. The solution isn’t scale. It’s fairness, visibility, and rebalancing power. That means: Mandating cost-reflective contracts between retailers and suppliers Enabling collective bargaining rights for growers Building transparent data systems linking production costs to consumer prices Introducing transition finance for smaller producers navigating reform and climate pressure And holding supermarkets publicly accountable for margin extraction But more than anything, it means recognising what we’re losing, before it's gone. Final word If you ate a vegetable today, it likely came from someone who’s considered giving up in the past year. Not because they don’t care. But because caring doesn’t pay. This isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about sovereignty, over what we eat, how we grow it, and who gets to stay in the system.  Because the next time you see rows of green stretching to the horizon, you might want to ask: How many of these fields are already planning their last harvest?

Recession Is Coming for FMCG and Most Leaders Are Pretending It’s Not

By John Elliott • June 20, 2025
If you're leading an FMCG or food manufacturing business right now, you're probably still talking about growth. Your board might be chasing headcount approvals. Your marketing team’s pitching a new brand campaign. Your category team’s assuming spend will bounce. But your customer? They’ve already moved on. Quietly. Like they always do. The illusion of resilience FMCG has always felt protected, “essential” by nature. People still eat, wash, shop. It’s easy to assume downturns pass around us, not through us. But this isn’t 2020. Recessions in 2025 won’t look like lockdowns. They’ll look like volume drops that no promo can fix. Shrinking margins on products that no longer carry their premium. Quiet shelf deletions you weren’t warned about. The data’s already there. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, consumer spending is slowing in real terms , even as inflation eases. The Reserve Bank confirmed in May: household consumption remains subdued amid weak real income growth . And over 80% of Australians have cut back on discretionary food spending , according to Finder. They’re still shopping, just not like they used to. A managing director at a national food manufacturer told me recently: “We won a new product listing in April. By July, it was marked for deletion. The velocity wasn’t there, but neither was the shopper. We’d forecasted like 2022 never ended. Rookie mistake.” That one stuck with me. Because I’ve heard it before, just in different words.