The challenges hospitality venues face in preventing sexual harassment and discrimination (and how to overcome them)

While shocking, the recent stories of sexual harassment and assault in Swillhouse Group venues will be all too familiar to anyone who has worked in hospitality. These workplaces are often rife with sexual harassment and discrimination. Understanding the industry challenges that contribute to these problems is crucial to developing methods of addressing them and creating safer workplaces in hospitality.

If you’ve ever worked in a bar, restaurant, or any kind of hospitality venue, you know it can be an exciting, fast-paced environment. From customers to chefs, from suppliers to attendants, you meet and speak to so many different, diverse people. ‘Hospitality’ is a broad category, covering a variety of vastly different workplaces, each with its own quirks.

This can make for an incredibly enriching, interesting, diverse career. But all this excitement comes with some real challenges, especially when it comes to preventing sexual harassment and discrimination. Hospitality is consistently highly represented in studies of sexual harassment by industry. The Australian Human Rights Commission’s most recent report on workplace sexual harassment in Australia found that 34% of workers in accommodation and food services had experienced sexual harassment in the last five years. ‘Blokey’ cultures that minimise or make light of sexual assault, belittle women and ignore reports of harassment are common. As the recent, shocking stories about the Swillhouse group reveal, sexual harassment is a serious issue across the industry, from small businesses to large conglomerates.

These issues are urgent. They will come as no surprise to people who work or have worked in the industry. However, understanding that this is a problem and identifying and addressing the problem are very different matters. It’s important to understand why these issues in hospitality exist and how the industry can change for the better.

Some of the main challenges in hospitality include:

1. High Staff Turnover

In hospitality, people are always coming and going. Whether it’s because of seasonal work or people moving on to new jobs, high staff turnover can make it hard to create a consistent, respectful workplace. New employees may not be fully trained on harassment and discrimination policies, or they might not feel confident speaking up if something happens. Regular training and support are needed to keep everyone on the same page.

2. The Late-Night Scene and Alcohol

If you’ve worked in a bar or club, you know things can get wild. With late nights and alcohol flowing, the chances of inappropriate behaviour increase. Whether it’s customers crossing the line or colleagues acting out, alcohol can make it harder to maintain boundaries. Having clear policies and training in place about how to handle these situations is essential for keeping everyone safe.

3. A Diverse Team

The hospitality industry is made up of people from all walks of life. While diversity is awesome, it can also create uneven power dynamics. A report by ANROWS has found that migrant and refugee women are significantly more likely to experience sexual harassment at work. Intersectional factors such as gender, race, migration status and disability greatly impact a person’s risk of harassment. Furthermore, hospitality workers are often very young. Young people are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment, in part because they are not yet experienced enough to identify and know how to address it. Making sure everyone knows the rules and feels comfortable raising issues is key to creating a respectful environment where everyone can thrive.

4. Dealing with Customers

Let’s face it—customers can be the biggest challenge in hospitality. Whether it’s rude comments, inappropriate touching, or other forms of harassment, it’s hard to know what to do when a paying customer crosses the line. Many employees might feel uncomfortable reporting these incidents because they don’t want to lose tips or face retaliation. But it’s important for venues to create a safe space where employees can report this behaviour without fear of getting into trouble. Under the Positive Duty, workplaces are expected to have clear protocols in place to address sexual harassment under any circumstances – including harassment by third parties such as customers.

5. Power Dynamics

In hospitality, there’s often a big gap in power between managers and frontline staff. Employees may hesitate to report harassment or discrimination because they’re worried about losing their job or facing backlash. Hospitality work is notoriously insecure and casualised, meaning that there is a very real risk workers who raise issues could see their shifts cut. This casualised culture extends to the administration of many hospitality venues, which often do not have strong anti-discrimination and harassment policies in place. Without these policies, there are no clear avenues for staff to report these issues, which can leave employees feeling stuck.

How to Create a Safe and Respectful Workplace

It is possible to create a safe and respectful workplace in hospitality. Regular training that’s relevant to the industry can help keep policies fresh in everyone’s mind. Having clear and confidential ways for employees to report incidents is also a game changer, ensuring that people feel comfortable speaking up.

Ultimately, fostering a culture of respect and accountability benefits everyone—staff are happier, customers have a better experience, and the business thrives. By taking proactive steps, hospitality venues can not only comply with the law but also build a positive, inclusive environment where everyone feels safe.

In short: tackling these challenges head-on is totally doable, and it’s worth it for everyone involved.

Find out more about how we can help your hospitality business here, how you can utilise our safe support and reporting platform at SafeSpace or speak to one of our experts - success@elevateconsultingpartners.com.au