Published: Friday, 31 July 2020 at 6:41:01 AM
Mid West Ports Authority (MWPA) are proud to be leading by example and demonstrating what workplaces can do to raise awareness of family violence (FV) and work towards its prevention.
MWPA Chief Executive, Dr Rochelle Macdonald said “Unfortunately I have experienced family violence in the past and I see the importance of sharing my story with my team to make sure they can call out behaviours and see what’s going on in their family.”
“We have put a lot of effort into making sure we give our teams the right tools to ensure they can recognise changes in behaviour, but also know how to approach it and where the help is.”
Initiatives implemented by MWPA include;
- Paid FV leave is included in the Enterprise Agreements and staff are actively encouraged to access it and seek support if they need to;
- A range of staff training opportunities related specifically to family violence including: How to support colleagues, friends and family members who might be experiencing family violence; How to challenge disrespectful behaviour at work and in social situations;
- A range of other training opportunities related to mental health and wellbeing that encourage help seeking and supporting colleagues and friends to work through personal challenges in a healthy and constructive way, and;
- Awareness raising events including community activities during the 16 Days in WA – Stop Family Violence campaign.
General Manager Sustainability, Culture and People, Vickie Williams encourages other organisations to think about what they can do to create awareness and knowledge of FV and how that can contribute to its prevention.
“Training is the number one thing that organisations can do, but it’s also calling out behaviours, having the proper processes and procedures in place to support people,” Mrs Williams said.Information Technology and Moorings team member Samuel MacLachlan attended the training and found it very valuable. “We learnt about ways to prevent violence against women in our community and in our families, and some of the biases we sometimes have in our culture.”
“When you see other people being disrespectful, it's important to call it out otherwise it allows it to continue, it allows people to think it's acceptable behaviour when it's really not,” Mr MacLachlan said.
As a signatory to the Community, Respect and Equality (CRE) Agreement for workplaces
Mid West Ports have worked with the WA Centre for Rural Health and Health Communications Resources to produce a video discussing their commitment to preventing family violence. The video will be available to view on the Mid West Ports Facebook page from the evening of Monday 4th August.
Back to News