Nearly two-thirds of Australian flight attendants have experienced sexual harassment from passengers and even more suffer at the hands of co-workers.
Those are the findings from a study released by the Australian Transport Workers Union.
It says flight attendants reported passengers exposing themselves, pinning down flight attendants or making degrading comments.
The research suggested half of those who experienced harassment had been harassed on multiple occasions.
The study said ‘four out of five staff were harassed by co-workers.’
More than 400 workers from airlines Qantas, Virgin, Jetstar, and Tigerair were surveyed.
"This really does lift the lid on a culture which cannot be allowed to persist in our Australian community," TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said.
Nearly 70% never reported the incident, the study says, and of those who did, 84% ‘weren’t satisfied with how it was handled.’
Qantas has acknowledged a problem in the industry and has defined procedures for dealing with workplace harassment.
"These processes have helped reveal behaviour that is simply not acceptable and we’ve taken action that has included terminating people’s employment," a Qantas spokesperson said.
