Sexual harassment

I’m a 19 years old female typist working with a number of men of all ages. A couple of them are doing things to embarrass me – putting semi-nude pictures of males and females on my desk – even staring at my large breasts. I made it clear I won’t have any of that nonsense. But they won’t stop. I don’t want to lose the job if I complain. What can I do?

 

What they are doing is ‘sexual harassment’ and there is an effective law in Australia against it. There are precedents where in similar circumstances the offenders in sexual harassment cases were fined rather heavily – the maximum fine being $40,000. You have rights where you work not to be offended or insulted or harassed directly or indirectly because of your gender. There are strict laws to protect employees from unfair sexual harassment. But note carefully, you must not encourage any of the unpleasant conduct directly or indirectly. You have to take the matter further because if you do not complain or not do anything about the claim, that could be interpreted that the offensive behavior is not negatively affecting you or that you consent to it. I suggest you see a solicitor immediately or apply to legal aid if you qualify for it.

Website photo copyright

Somebody took a picture of me off my website on the internet and used it without my permission. Can I tell the person to remove it as I don’t like what he said about me?

 

Yes, absolutely. If the picture was one that you took and you do not like it being used on someone’s website you can email the person responsible and tell him that copyright law prevents them from publishing your photo. Only just very recently someone I know did that – emailed the person who was looking after a website and demanded that the eight photos he published without his permission to be removed immediately because it was against copyright law. The other person did in fact remove all the photos immediately. In Australia, photographs have copyright when taken before May 1989 – for fifty years from the date the photo was taken. After May 1989 – 50 years from the date the photo was published (or supplied to the public). 

Physician exceeding authority?

My doctor asked me to fill in a questionnaire about how I felt about suing the insurance company for compensation after a car accident. When I got home I began to feel suspicious because if the insurance company got hold of the confidential information from the survey that could go against me. Kindly advise.

 

You should never fill out surveys about how you are progressing in your physical and mental condition when you have a matter with an insurance company. Experience has shown that some doctors could ‘inadvertently’ pass on the information to the insurance company. There was a precedent to this effect where the doctor tried to leave the country before the matter was formally heard. If your doctor passes the information to the insurance company, that would be a very serious breach. It could constitute misconduct which would be serious enough to suspend the doctor from practicing for some time. In any event, you should always obtain a copy of the survey you filled in. Also, ask the doctor what he was going to do with the survey you filled in and on whose behalf it was done and if he is going to send a copy of it to the insurance. If he refuses to answer those questions, write a complaint to the Medical Board.