Sexual assault or harassment at work: NSW workers compensation guide

Sexual assault or harassment at work can occur through unwelcome sexual advance, request or other unwelcome sexual conduct and sexual assault, coercion, stalking or threat. The incident history should identify the task, equipment, location and sequence of events rather than relying on the job title alone.

People commonly exposed include workers subjected to conduct by colleagues, supervisors, clients or members of the public and workers at ordinary workplaces, off-site duties, work travel or work functions. Employment records should identify each person's task, employer and position in the work area when the incident occurred.

Medical records after a sexual assault or harassment at work may identify physical injury where assault occurred and a diagnosed primary psychological injury. Each diagnosis should be linked to the event or exposure and to the worker's actual functional change.

After a sexual assault or harassment at work, immediate reporting and safety records may include confidential workplace report made through a safe channel where possible and police event number where an assault or crime is reported. These records can establish what was known at the time without requiring the worker to repeatedly recount a traumatic event.

• Preservation of messages, emails, access, CCTV and event records.
• Support-person, witness and contemporaneous disclosure records.

For a sexual assault or harassment at work, the first evidence to preserve includes chronology using the worker’s own words without unnecessary repetition of traumatic detail and work function, travel, roster or supervision records. It is most useful when dates, people, equipment, duties and later medical histories tell a consistent account.

• Prior complaints and employer response where relevant.
• Medical and psychological evidence.

Medical and psychological evidence after a sexual assault or harassment at work may include trauma-informed GP, psychologist or psychiatrist evidence and physical examination records only where relevant and chosen by the worker. A diagnosis alone may not answer causation or capacity: the records should explain the work event, symptoms, treatment and practical restrictions.

• Diagnosis, functional effect and capacity restrictions.
• Treatment and return-to-work planning that protects privacy and safety.

After a sexual assault or harassment at work, an insurer may dispute the conduct is denied or characterised as consensual or harmless and the insurer disputes work connection at travel or social events. The written decision should be answered with evidence directed to those stated reasons.

Trauma-informed GP, psychologist or psychiatrist evidence. Physical examination records only where relevant and chosen by the worker. If treatment is disputed after a sexual assault or harassment at work, the request should explain the accepted diagnosis, expected functional benefit and reasonable alternatives.

Work capacity after a sexual assault or harassment at work may turn on safe separation, reporting line, location and communications and privacy, contact with the alleged person and workplace investigation exposure. Proposed duties must be compared with the real task demands and the worker's ability to sustain them for the proposed hours.

A lasting physical injury is assessed under the NSW method for the affected body system only after the condition is sufficiently stable. The event label does not predict a WPI percentage. Primary psychological impairment is assessed separately under the NSW psychiatric impairment method when the condition is permanent and the legal pathway is established. Diagnosis alone does not determine WPI. Any WPI assessment after a sexual assault or harassment at work occurs after stabilisation under the NSW method for the accepted body system; the accident or surgery alone does not determine a percentage.

A primary psychological injury is the psychological condition said to arise directly from workplace events. For claims first notified on or after 1 July 2026, the event must fit a relevant-event category and satisfy the additional connection and causation requirements. A secondary psychological injury arises as a consequence of a physical injury, for example depression associated with pain, surgery or loss of mobility after an assault injury. The 2026 primary-injury reforms do not apply to secondary psychological injuries in the same way. The distinction depends on medical causation and the accepted injury history, not simply on which symptoms were noticed first.

A police, SafeWork, workplace, discrimination, Fair Work or protective-order process may exist alongside workers compensation. Those processes have different purposes and do not decide workers compensation automatically. A civil, victims-support or other claim may require separate advice depending on the person involved and circumstances. It should not be described as part of workers compensation without checking eligibility. These issues are separate from workers compensation and depend on the particular facts.

For a sexual assault or harassment at work, assistance may involve identify the event category, incident date and claim pathway before responding to an insurer and organise incident, safety, medical, psychological and capacity evidence without circulating unnecessary private material. The purpose is to identify the disputed decision and the evidence needed for the next step, not to promise an outcome.