Crime & Law

Former Domino’s worker awarded €19,000 in sexual harassment case

Staff in fast food Dublin outlet would ‘howl at women as they passed by’, Jasmine Olaru told Workplace Relations Commission

Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Stephen Bourke
Wed May 15 2024 - 20:40

A worker has won €19,000 in compensation after enduring repeated sexual harassment from colleagues in her first job out of school at a Domino’s Pizza shop – including being propositioned for sex, being told to “do OnlyFans”, and handed a name badge with a picture of breasts on it.

“They would actually howl at women as they passed by on the street,” the worker said of the pizza cooks at the store in a Dublin suburb, adding later: “I felt completely sexualised, like every move that I made was sexualised.”

“I wouldn’t talk to my mum much about it because it was gross. I would leave for work; she thought I was safe there. I didn’t want her knowing what was happening. I cried to my friends,” Jasmine Olaru told the Workplace Relations Commission earlier this year.

She was 18 and still at secondary school when she started work at the shop counter in February 2022 – her first ever job, she told the WRC.

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The employment tribunal has now ordered the operator of the pizza shop, Remo Foods Ltd, to pay €16,000 to Ms Olaru for sexual harassment and victimisation in breach of the Employment Equality Act, 1998, along with a further €3,000 for a breach of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997.

Remo Foods, a franchisee which runs 23 Domino’s Pizza branches in the Republic has also been ordered to review the “effectiveness” of its anti-sexual harassment policies and training in the wake of the findings.

The badge given to Jasmine Olaru by a manager of the Domino's.
The badge given to Jasmine Olaru by a manager of the Domino's.

Ms Olaru said that on various occasions, the deputy manager, Mr B, threatened to “spank” her with the shovel used to scoop out pizza from the oven; told her she “should do OnlyFans” – which she took to mean she should make pornography – and asked her: “Can I watch?” when she went to change into her uniform.

Ms Olaru said that on July 29th, 2022, she and another worker arrived without their name tags and were pulled up for it by the deputy manager, Mr B. The complainant said Mr B went into a back office with an assistant manager, Mr C, and another male employee, Mr G before re-emerging with a pair of name tags for them.

“They handed me mine. It had a pair of breasts on it,” she said. Mr B, the deputy manager, insisted it was “funny”, Ms Olaru said. She said she went to a back room and cried “for an hour or two”.

After giving her notice in September 2022, the complainant said she found herself clocked out from her shifts early on two occasions by her managers. Her barrister, Jason Murray BL, appearing instructed by Martin O’Donnell LLB of Morgan Redmond solicitors, argued that this amounted to “blatant victimisation” for reporting harassment to the store manager.

Adjudicator Elizabeth Spelman said Ms Olaru’s evidence had been credible and uncontested, with “considerable detail including dates, names and locations”, along with “corroborating evidence” – the offending name tag, which the complainant had kept and brought with her to the hearing.

“The respondent did not produce a single witness to rebut the complainant’s allegations,” Ms Spelman added.

She found Ms Olaru was “discriminated against on the ground of gender and sexually harassed in violation of the Employment Equality Act” – awarding her €13,000 in compensation – the maximum sum possible, she wrote, as the worker had already left the job when she complained.

She awarded a further €3,000 for victimisation under the same act and the same sum again for on foot of a finding that Ms Olaru did not receive breaks in accordance with the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. The total compensation in the case was €19,000.