Pub grubs: New plan to tackle predatory behaviour in SA’s hopso scene
The Malinauskas government will introduce mandatory industry-wide training to combat sexual harassment, harassment, gender-based violence and drink spiking in South Australian hospitality venues.
The aim is to improve safety in the hospitality industry and support workers to prevent and respond to instances of harassment, assault and discrimination at work.
This follows research finding that approximately half of hospitality workers have experienced sexual harassment, assault or discrimination in the workplace. 70 per cent of hospitality workers in South Australia are women.
This mandatory training will likely fit within Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) training, which is already mandatory for anyone serving alcohol at a licensed venue. It is expected to be finalised by the end of the year.
Jamie Bucirde, founder of Not So Hospitable, which is an online space where “people can give their testimonies of sexual harassment or assault within hospitality”, and On The Cusp, which delivers workplace training on sexual violence awareness and more, supported the proposed changes.
“They’re adding bystander intervention training into the RSA model. What that will look like? They’re still working it through. They’ve just released their first discussion paper – it’s open to public organisations like myself that want to offer feedback in terms of what’s actually in there,” Bucirde said.
“But essentially, under the bystander dimension training model, it’ll have things like drink spiking, sexual harassment, sexual assault prevention and awareness, bullying and harassment. So really covering all those grounds.”
You might like
Bucirde also said she’d love to see “more information on reporting structures and how to implement a standard of reporting structures for venues” as “it’s not really regulated in our industry”.
She’d also like to see “some education on a young worker’s rights and legal rights” so they can understand “what the current laws are, reflecting worker rights, and just being able to really understand that there are a lot of things that are illegal…[and] your bosses or managers can’t legally do get away with”.
“I think information is power,” Bucirde said.
“At the moment, they’re trying to figure out if this becomes an accredited course, or if any training organisation can offer this course, if it’s going to look online, or if it’s going to be in person, or a mixture of both.
“This is the process where they’re going over everything with a fine-tooth comb and figuring out the best way to implement it moving forward.”
Bucirde recommended that the training fit a particular “rubric or criteria that is approved by the government” rather than being a “nationally accredited course”.
This is so “everyone is following the same model, so it’s consistent”.
“I think there does need to be a structure of things that is taught about – the same way that a school syllabus works,” Bucirde said.
Stay informed, daily
Bucirde also suggested a mixture of in-person and online training.
“Obviously, in-person training is always going to be more effective, especially with things like sexual harassment and assault prevention and bystander intervention training,” she said.
“However, I don’t think that’s always necessarily as accessible as online training. I think there should be a mixture of both.
“I think that maybe as a baseline, everyone should have to do an online training, and then it should be followed up with or reinforced with an in-person training later down the track, or people get an option.
“I think that human-facing issues deserve human-facing solutions, and I’d love to see the government actually just mandate in-person training for all hospitality venues – that’s the end goal.
“I just think that there’s probably a few steps in between to get there, of like, what they’re doing now…or just doing RSA online as a starting point.”
Bucirde said trainings like this were important because “no one really has had access to this from a hospitality lens” and the issues covered are “so prevalent and continue to be”.
“It has been such an unspoken rule up until quite recently that people just assume it’s a part of the job,” Bucirde said.
“It’s really important because research continues to back that the more knowledge and education people have on preventative measures of sexual harassment [and] sexual assault, that directly stops the culture, so it’s actually impacting positively by giving people education.
“And this education is so transferable across the board. Whilst it might be about hospitality workplaces, you can also take that context everywhere else in your life as well – it’s just as valuable.
“I really think that if more hospitality staff had the skills to recognise and respond and de-escalate dangerous situations and keep people safe, it’s going to directly impact gender based violence in Australia, because it’s a watering hole for these kinds of cultures and these behaviours to come out.
“So it makes sense that we start at the very centre of where a lot of this behaviour comes from.”
