A MOTHER who suffered sexual harassment and victimisation from a director at the petrol forecourt and supermarket she was working at in the northwest has been awarded €54,000 damages by the Equality Tribunal.
Equality officer Stephen Bonnlander found the company discriminated against the woman by not taking reasonable and practical steps to prevent the repeated sexual harassment and “victimisatory dismissal” that took place.
The director of the company made lewd comments to the woman telling her on several occasions: “You are in fine form for a rub of the relic”. The complainant understood this to be an allusion that she should masturbate him, a point accepted by Mr Bonnlander.
These lewd comments continued at a frequency of about twice a week from October 2007 until the summer of 2008, the woman told the Equality Tribunal.
The director of the company, who is named only as Mr A in the judgment, said the remarks were blown out of proportion. He said the “rub of the relic” referred to a miraculous medal that a staff member had brought back from Lourdes. Mr Bonnlander said his evidence is not credible as “rub of the relic” is a colloquially-known reference to masturbation.
The woman told the tribunal that Mr A put his hand into her blouse and squeezed her ribs when she was stretching to reach a packet of cigarettes on one occasion. On another occasion Mr A felt the back of her leg in the shop and asked: “Why are your hands shaking, am I making you nervous?”
Initially, the woman did not make a complaint about the incidents of sexual harassment. She said she felt it would be difficult to get another job in the area because most businesses in the locality are owned by the director.
She also said she was afraid of the man’s temperament because Mr A had previously been convicted of assault, which had been reported extensively in a local newspaper. Mr A, in cross examination, said without hesitation that he would assault the relevant person again, or another, if his victim displayed the same transgressing behaviour again.
The woman later contacted a local garda for advice and subsequently made a complaint to the store manager and the franchise under which the store operated.
In his ruling Mr Bonnlander said the company must pay the sum of €26,988 in compensation for the effects of the sexual harassment amounting to discrimination. He also ordered the company to pay €26,988 in compensation for her victimisation and subsequent victimisatory dismissal.
The woman issued a statement though her legal advisers at the Equality Authority last night.
She said she was very relieved and delighted that the principles she took the case on were successful. She said the incidents completely knocked her confidence, but she would encourage other people to stand up to this type of behaviour.