“As a feminist, it was particularly humiliating, because I felt every time I didn’t say anything, I betrayed myself”. Lauren Menswear, Industrial design Read her story “My own ‘no’ isn’t enough; it’s that they don’t want to be cutting some other bloke’s lunch”. Danielle Bartender Read her story “Once a man threw a can of Coke at me and said women have no business talking about this stuff”. Jennie Advanced driving instructor Read her story “What’s really gutting is the student’s interpretation: ‘the bitches didn’t get the joke’”. Laura High school teacher Read her story “I bumped into him outside of work once and I was like, ‘holy shit, what if he follows me home?’”. Cassandra Post office worker Read her story

Fairfax Media spoke to 20 women for this investigation. They work in a broad range of roles: waitresses, retail workers, health workers, teachers, an industrial designer, sex worker, librarians and call centre staff. They are employed at places you’ve been to - bars, juice kiosks, public hospitals, the post office.

Moderate verbal or physical harassment is experienced daily by some, weekly by many of these women. Major incidents - rape threats, stalking, physical attack - happen to them maybe once a year. The consequences for their physical and mental health are serious and long term. "I am so glad you are doing this story," many women said.

If their experiences are typical, hundreds of thousands of employees face the same hazards every week.

So where are the hard-hitting safety campaigns? In the five years since the amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act was passed, there have been none. And despite their responsibility for enforcing safety, regulators have not pressed employers to protect staff against these newly unlawful acts.

“If we were seeing those sorts of injury rates for a piece of machinery, you’d expect to see ads on TV, there would be approved training, there’d be prosecutions,” says workplace relations and discrimination lawyer, Lisa Heap. “You’d have to conclude it’s entrenched sexism in regulating authorities.”

“You working here all alone?”, “You look sexy in your uniform”, “Stuck up bitch”, “Give me a blow job”.

Stop right there. Go back. Where did that go from being friendly to creepy? The sexist insult? The implied threat of violence? Actually, delivered with a leer or a snarl, all these comments crossed the line for the women they were directed to at work.

The law defines sexual harassment as any unwelcome sexual behaviour which makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.

About 25 per cent of female and 16 per cent of male employees have experienced such harassment at work in the previous five years, according to Australian Human Rights Commission data. About nine per cent of those were targeted by a customer.

Overseas research suggests an even greater prevalence of customer harassment in service industries, particularly those in which women and younger workers are over-represented. Among female retail workers, the incidence was as high as 40 per cent in a US study, and 67 per cent in a Canadian one.

What’s your number? When do you finish? See you in my dreams You working here all alone? You look sexy in your uniform Give me a blowjob I’d tap that Stuck up bitch You should be f---ing grateful for the compliment

Figures like these indicate the incidence could fairly be described as a serious and systemic hazard in many industries. Yet the AHRC, whose officeholders include national Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, receives only about 200 complaints relating to workplace sexual harassment per year, a figure which has plateaued in recent years. Just 17 a year - about 9 per cent of the total - relate to the provision of goods and services (and that includes customers harassing employees and vice versa).

Jenkins, who was previously Victorian Human Rights Commissioner, says the picture is similar at state and territory levels, indicating at best, about 150 cases of customer-client harassment are registered each year, and only 750 in the five years since the law was amended.

Testimony from the people who work in frontline roles suggest that’s not the tip of an iceberg. It’s a snowflake on its summit.