This case, brought by Redfern Legal Centre, will have significant and far-reaching systemic impact for victim survivors of sexual harassment. The quantum of damages demonstrates that employers must act to prevent and address sexual harassment as a serious and systemic workplace issue. It also places employers on notice regarding their conduct in sexual harassment matters.
The Federal Court has demonstrated that the devastating impact of sexual harassment will result in significant damages – that will take into account the personal attributes of the victim survivor.
The case was brought on behalf of a young woman who was 22 at the time of the harassment and employed at a fast-food franchise, was successful in claims of sexual harassment, victimisation, and aggravated damages.
The young woman has been unable to work for two and a half years since leaving the workplace where the harassment occurred.
As an international student, she has been ineligible for income support.
The court found the woman was sexually harassed and further victimised by correspondence threatening the bringing of a defamation proceeding. Aggravated damages were awarded due to the way the employer conducted its defence. The employer’s conduct was described by the Court as offensive, scandalous and reliant on outdated and inappropriate assumptions about how individuals respond to sexual harassment in the workplace.
This judgment underscores the vital role that community legal centres play in ensuring access to justice.
Without access to free legal assistance, our client would not have been able to hold her employer accountable for sexually harassing her in the workplace.
This case is a landmark decision for workers who are often targeted for exploitation—such as young people, international students, and low-income workers—who are far less likely to have the means to pursue justice.
Senior Solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, Seri Feldman-Gubbay, said:
“No matter your income, race, disability, or visa status, if you are working in Australia, you have the right to a safe workplace, free from discrimination and harassment.
This landmark decision should act as a warning to employers: if you tolerate sexist workplace cultures, target vulnerable workers for sexual harassment, or threaten defamation proceedings against employees who speak up about sexual harassment, you will face the most serious consequences.
Our client, an international student with no income, would have had no viable path to justice without the support of a community legal centre and pro bono counsel.
Despite legal intimidation at every step of this proceeding, our client persisted.
Every year, community legal centres are forced to turn away thousands of people simply because we don’t have the resources to meet the growing demand for legal help.
Funding community legal centres ensures that those who are often without a voice in the legal system are not only given a voice, but also a megaphone.”
Jennifer Robinson, Board Director at Grata Fund, Australian human rights lawyer and barrister, said:
“This important outcome will act as a warning and deterrent to perpetrators of sexual harassment and help to shift the power dynamic that creates a culture of impunity.
We congratulate the plaintiff for her courage in taking this forward. Despite attempts to silence her through defamation proceedings and ‘offensive’ efforts to discredit her in court which were ‘reliant on outdated and inappropriate assumptions about how individuals respond to sexual harassment in the workplace’, she persisted to set a new record in damages awards for victim-survivors of sexual harassment.
The court made the important finding that the threat of defamation proceedings to stop women from making sexual harassment complaints amounts to victimisation under the law, entitling her to further compensation.
This decision sends a clear warning to perpetrators who seek to use defamation laws to threaten and silence victim-survivors.
Victim-survivors face significant barriers to justice, but this case shows that this is slowly changing.
For example, last year Grata Fund in collaboration with sector partners advocated for and won a costs model that removed the risk of being forced to pay the other side’s costs, removing one hurdle to getting to court.
This change will continue to enable more women, like the plaintiff, to hold their perpetrators accountable.
We thank the fantastic team at Redfern Legal Centre, and community legal centres across the country, who play a critical role in facilitating access to justice.”
Background on sexual harassment
The AHRC’s 2022 National Survey revealed that 40% of women and 26% of men have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace in the preceding five years. It also showed that that young woman are far more likely to be targeted for sexual harassment.
However, only 1 in 230,000 victim-survivors of workplace sexual harassment end up bringing proceedings in an Australian court. And of those figures, most cases do not proceed to a final hearing.
The recent report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Speaking From Experience (2025), found that people facing overlapping forms of disadvantage and discrimination are more likely to be targeted by perpetrators, and face greater barriers to support.
Read the full judgement here.
