SafeWork NSW's Respect at Work Taskforce assessed 38 hospitality venues across NSW over a two-month compliance programme in December 2024 and January 2025. Inspectors issued 16 improvement notices to 11 venues for inadequate sexual harassment work health and safety controls.

This is what targeted psychosocial compliance enforcement looks like in practice. Not a prosecution. Not a fine. A regulator walking into a workplace, assessing whether the PCBU has identified and controlled a specific psychosocial hazard, and issuing an improvement notice where the controls are not adequate.

What inspectors assessed

Inspectors assessed whether venues were proactively managing WHS risks to prevent sexual harassment, focusing on the key risk drivers in hospitality: the service of alcohol, late-night work, and close interactions with customers. The programme evaluated hazard identification, risk assessment, control measures, worker consultation, training, reporting pathways, and incident investigation processes.

The assessment was structured around the NSW Code of Practice: Sexual and gender-based harassment, approved in June 2024, and the Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice. The Commonwealth's Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment Code of Practice 2025, approved on 5 March 2025, provides a complementary national framework.

What inspectors found

The results showed a sector that is partially compliant but has significant gaps in implementation.

Ninety-two per cent of venues had a system of work in place to identify the risk of sexual harassment. Thirty-seven of 38 venues had some form of control measure in place to prevent it. Eighty-two per cent had some form of training for workers and managers on sexual harassment prevention. Almost all venues had reporting pathways available.

Examples of control measures already in place included ensuring management representatives were present during peak and late-night shifts, assigning inexperienced workers to shifts with more experienced colleagues, and providing security escorts for staff leaving work late at night.

But eight of the 38 venues had not considered a comprehensive range of factors when assessing risks. Risk registers were broad and lacked sufficient detail in addressing sexual harassment specifically. Fewer venues had systems in place to investigate reported incidents. And thirty-two per cent of workers spoken to within the venues visited had experienced or witnessed sexual harassment in the workplace, a figure consistent with Australian Human Rights Commission findings.

SafeWork NSW Director Capability and Engagement Christina Hey-Nguyen noted that hospitality workers face a higher-than-average risk of experiencing sexual harassment, citing alcohol service, late-night work, and the expectation that customer needs are prioritised over worker safety and respect.

The third-party exposure problem

The hospitality findings highlight a psychosocial hazard that extends well beyond this sector: worker exposure to sexual harassment from third parties. Customers, clients, patients, members of the public, and visitors are all potential sources of sexual harassment in customer-facing workplaces.

The NSW Code of Practice makes clear that the PCBU's duty to eliminate or minimise the risk of sexual and gender-based harassment extends to harassment by third parties including customers, clients, patients, service users, patrons, suppliers, students, parents, carers, and visitors. The PCBU cannot control the behaviour of every individual who enters the workplace, but it can control work design, staffing, supervision, reporting systems, and the environment in which the interaction occurs.

For hospitality, this means controls such as adequate staffing during peak periods, clear protocols for refusing service, physical layout that provides visibility and reduces isolation, de-escalation training, and incident reporting systems that capture harassment from customers, not just from colleagues.

The practical lesson

The SafeWork NSW hospitality programme demonstrates the current enforcement approach in operation: sector-specific, inspection-based, focused on systems rather than individual incidents, and using improvement notices to drive compliance.

The deficiencies identified were not unusual. They are common across customer-facing industries. Broad risk registers that do not specifically address sexual harassment. Training that exists but does not cover the specific risks of the work environment. Reporting pathways that are available but are not supported by investigation processes. These are gaps that a regulator conducting a psychosocial compliance inspection will identify.

The NSW Government has invested $127.7 million in SafeWork NSW over four years to address psychosocial hazards, including the recruitment of 51 inspectors, 20 of whom are psychosocial-focused. Hospitality will not be the last sector to receive this level of targeted attention.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information on psychosocial compliance in Australian workplaces. It does not constitute legal advice. Organisations should consult qualified professionals for advice specific to their circumstances. Information cited is sourced from SafeWork NSW, the NSW Government, and relevant industry publications as of the date of publication.