“I didn’t understand the gravity of what was happening”
Sleaze, assault and even threats of rape are all on the menu for young women who work in hospitality – so why does no one stop it?Along with her first ever pay packet, 15-year-old Erin Thompson’s after-school and weekend job at Hungry Jack’s came with her first experience of sexual harassment.
Co-workers, some also just 15, would corner her in the dry store area or the freezer and make sexual comments about her body, leaving her scared and uncomfortable.
“They were pressuring me to engage in activity I didn't want and wasn’t interested in at all, let alone at work,” Thompson, now 24, says.
When she tried to report them, managers would brush off the incidents or tell her that security cameras weren’t working so there was no evidence of what she alleged.
“I didn’t know who [else] to go to,” she says. “These things were not in the manual or discussed in training.”
Thompson felt helpless to take it further because some of the managers also liked to hit on the youngest women – still girls, actually – and invite them to after-work parties. There they would ply them with drinks and have sex with them. It didn’t happen to her but it did to her friends. They told her – and the managers would brag about it at work.
“I didn’t really understand the gravity of what was happening, for a 25-year-old man to be having sex with drunk 14 or 15-year-old girls,” Thompson says.
During sex education classes at school later that year, she understood that the girls couldn't legally consent due to their age, that what had allegedly occurred was statutory rape, she says.
“Had we had access to that earlier in high school, I would have known; I would have gone up the [management] line.”
A statement from Hungry Jack’s said the company “had zero tolerance for any actions that harass … and strict policies concerning the behaviour of any of its employees”. Past or current employees with concerns could call the customer service hotline, the statement said.
Thompson has worked in 11 hospitality jobs since that first one. She has experienced hundreds, possibly thousands, of other frightening and humiliating experiences. It’s happened in fast-food places and big-brand coffee shops, as well as city and suburban cafes. In some workplaces, it was several times a week. In a few, it was virtually every shift. The perpetrators could be bosses or co-workers or customers.
“It is absolutely part of the reason I’ve moved around so much,” she says.
Her experiences are borne out in a national survey by the union United Voice, which found that
89 per cent of hospitality workers had experienced sexual harassment at work. (The law defines sexual harassment as any unwelcome sexual behaviour that makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.)
Women made up 90 per cent of the 300 people surveyed. Most respondents were younger than 34 with about half (49 per cent) younger than 24.
Three-quarters said they had experienced unwanted sexual advances (73 per cent) and inappropriate touching (69 per cent). Almost nine out of 10 reported sexist remarks (87 per cent), comments on their body (85 per cent) and sexual innuendo (84 per cent).About one in five (19 per cent) said they had been sexually assaulted.http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/harassment-in-hospitality/