A saleswoman from Norfolk, England, took legal action after discovering that her male colleagues placed bets on who would sleep with her first.
Molly Craigie had just joined home improvement company East Anglia Home Improvements in 2022 when the bet was made.
Craigie told an employment tribunal that the men’s behavior amounted to a “s*x sweepstake” and that they had made a “wager” on who would be the first to “bed” her.
The woman, who was in her early twenties at the time of the incident, claimed that she was “s*xualized and singled out” because of her gender and accused managers of encouraging “locker room chat” at the company.
A saleswoman in the UK took legal action after co-workers and her boss betted on who would sleep with her first
Image credits: Drazen/stock.adobe.com (Not the actual photo)
She further claimed she was told to “flirt and flaunt herself” with customers and to use “s*x to make sales.”
Craigie was allegedly told she’d been hired because “she would not intimidate elderly customers.”
Image credits: mollycraigie
Her role required visiting potential customers who had expressed interest in double glazing and other home improvement products, with the aim of persuading them to purchase the company’s products, as per The Daily Mail.
After joining the company, a co-worker warned Craigie that “two of my colleagues had placed a wager between themselves as to who would sleep with me first.” One of the men involved was allegedly a member of management.
The alleged inappropriate conduct took place at East Anglia Home Improvements
Image credits: makemeunique.co.uk/
Image credits: East Anglia Home Improvements
The saleswoman said the discovery of the alleged bet “stuck with me,” arguing, “Colleagues s*xualized me and singled me out, all down to my s*x.”
The bet was placed before her colleagues “got time to know me and realize I was in a long-term committed relationship,” she told the tribunal.
Judge Rebecca Peer at the Watford Employment Tribunal ruled that the men’s behavior constituted s*xual harassment. “In principle, the making of a wager on those terms would amount to unwanted conduct of a s*xual nature,” she said.
Judge Peer noted there was no evidence that Craigie had “directly confronted anyone about the wager or sought further information or even tried to ascertain whether the information given by [her colleague] was true.”
Still, the judge accepted parts of Craigie’s evidence and found it “likely” that the incident unfolded as the woman described.
Craigie alleged that her colleagues told her to “flirt and flaunt herself” with potential clients
Image credits: Felicity Tai/Pexels (Not the actual photo)
The complaint was dismissed due to a technicality, as the saleswoman had lodged it “out of time” and it was too late to consider it.
Ultimately, Judge Peer ruled that she was entitled to £4,775 in unpaid holiday pay by her former employer.
It comes after a senior executive at Acas, the UK’s authority on workplace conduct, was fired for s*xual harassment after sending a “barrage” of inappropriate messages to young female colleagues, suggested “s*x bets,” and left a pair of women’s underwear on a female colleague’s desk.
Image credits: azwedo/Unsplash (Not the actual photo)
The judgment detailed how an internal Acas investigation found that several female workers had accused John Woods of conduct ranging from flirtation to “inappropriate comments and behavior.”
During the probe in 2021, the Deputy Chief Conciliator reportedly complained the MeToo movement had “changed the rules” and “lowered the bar for s*xual harassment.”
After being fired for gross misconduct, Woods sued Acas for unfair dismissal. He won the case, as the government-funded body failed to follow its own rules during the dismissal procedure.
Judge Rebecca Peer ruled that the men’s behavior constituted s*xual harassment
Image credits: iamchamp/stock.adobe.com (Not the actual photo)
However, he didn’t receive compensation after an employment tribunal ruled that even if the process had been carried out correctly, he would still have been fired for gross misconduct.
An internal investigation found evidence to suggest Woods was “perceived as being very powerful and influential within Acas” and that he had “groomed” and “gaslighted” one woman who had “accepted his coercive, manipulating and threatening behavior at the time.”
There was also evidence indicating a “pattern of behavior” of him making “persistent” advances toward new, young female colleagues. Employees felt they couldn’t address his behavior because of his seniority and their being new to the organization, according to the judgement.
Netizens reacted to the judge’s ruling and discussed the issue workplace s*xual harassment
from Bored Panda https://ift.tt/x9fQe1h
via IFTTT source site : boredpanda
