Women whistleblowers more likely to face harassment, bullying than men

A new report finds that women are most vulnerable when speaking out against company wrongdoing. According to the report, close to one in three women who blew the whistle reportedly faced bullying and discrimination in the workplace as a result.

The Human Rights Law Centre (HLRC) has published a report showing that “women have been shown to suffer greater retaliation”.

Although there are similar rates of reprisal experienced by men and women alike for whistleblowing, “almost a third of [women] faced harassment and bullying because of their disclosures, while only nine per cent of [men] did”, the report noted.

“Women whistleblowers pay a heavy price for their courage. While men and women face reprisal at similar rates… women are more likely to be harassed and bullied in the workplace for speaking up,” said Anneliese Cooper, acting senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre.

The report also drew links between income and reprisal, noting “women are more likely to suffer reprisal the less they earn”. It further revealed that the whistleblowers “who are junior and lack power are more likely to suffer reprisal”.

Julia Delaforce, who is a Royal Australian Air Force whistleblower, said that “women are rarely the public face of whistleblowing, yet we do speak up at great risk to our wellbeing in the process.”

“Our broken whistleblowing laws disproportionately affect women who speak up by failing or endangering them in the very act of seeking justice,” said the report. According to HLRC, 45 per cent of all disclosures made by women blowing the whistle were “related to the endangerment or mistreatment of people”.

“We are often not believed and suffer psychologically harmful forms of retaliation”, Delaforce said.

A systemic issue

Reprisal is on the rise for women in the workplace. A concerning figure shows that 100 per cent of workers in healthcare who engaged their services suffered reprisal following their reports of wrongdoing. HR Leader and its sister brands at Momentum Media have reported on similar cases that occurred in Australia, including those of ADF whistleblower David McBride and ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle, who both faced heavy sentences and penalties for carrying out whistleblowing practices.

Kieran Pender (pictured), associate legal director at HRLC, recently told HR Leader that “the truth should not be criminalised, yet Australia’s broken whistleblower protection laws have led to numerous whistleblowers being prosecuted for speaking up”.

At that time, HR Leader reported that actions had been taken to reform whistleblower protections, with a bill introduced on 10 February following legal action against Anthony Watson, PwC whistleblower, and Boyle. Through this bill, a whistleblower protection authority would be established to provide safeguards for employees who decide to report corruption and wrongdoing.

More protections needed

For employees in the private sector, ASIC or APRA remains the only protected avenue for whistleblowers to expose improper business practices.

“Whistleblowers can report ‘wrongdoing’ or an ‘improper state of affairs’ related to a company to ASIC. While this wrongdoing threshold is broad, ASIC is concerned with wrongdoing related to areas of financial products, credit activity, or financial services”, HRLC said.

HRLC called for a ‘no-wrong doors’ approach, arguing that this “reform would mean that any report of wrongdoing made to an agency or regulator is protected and referred to the appropriate regulator.”