5. Controlling the risk

Risk management process. A continual cycle of identify hazards, assess the risk, control the risk and review control measures with consultation throughout. Note, for known risks and controls the assess risks step can be bypassed. The third step, control risks, is highlighted in red.Once you, as the PCBU, have identified and assessed the risk of sexual and gender-based harassment, you are in a position to control the risk in consultation with your workers.

You must eliminate risks to health and safety if it is reasonably practicable to do so. If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risks, you must minimise risks so far as is reasonably practicable.

Every workplace is different. The best combination of control measures to eliminate or minimise the risk of sexual and gender-based harassment in your workplace will be tailored to your organisation’s size, type, work activities, location and workforce.

Information on the process to identify and select reasonably practicable control measures is provided in the Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work) Code of Practice 2024 (Cth) and Safe Work Australia’s Interpretive Guideline: The meaning of ‘reasonably practicable’.

WHS Regulations regulation 55D

Control measures

The WHS Regulations require that in determining control measures you have regard to all relevant matters, including:

\- the duration, frequency and severity of the exposure of workers and other persons to the risk of sexual and gender-based harassment
\- how sexual and gender-based harassment and other psychosocial hazards may interact or combine
\- the design of work, including job demands and tasks
\- the systems of work, including how work is managed, organised and supported
\- the design and layout, and environmental conditions, of the workplace, including the provision of:
o safe means of entering and exiting the workplace
o facilities for the welfare of workers
\- the design and layout and environmental conditions of workers’ accommodation
\- the plant, substances and structures at the workplace
\- workplace interactions or behaviours, and
\- the information, training, instruction and supervision provided to workers.

Further information and examples of these are provided in the sections below. Not all examples will be relevant or reasonably practicable in all circumstances. You must consult with your workers, and their representatives, and consider the circumstances of your work and workplace when making decisions about what control measures to implement to prevent sexual and gender-based harassment.

The most effective way to control a hazard is to not introduce the hazard in the first place. For example, considering the risks and designing the layout of buildings or new processes to avoid introducing hazards.