A woman who was told to stand up and turn around before being slapped on the bottom with a ruler by her male manager has settled a sexual harassment case for £90,000.
After complaining to her company, she was treated like a troublemaker and her former employer – based in Northern Ireland – alleged she had “dressed and behaved provocatively”, she said.
The case has been highlighted by the Northern Ireland Equality Commission, whose chief commissioner, Geraldine McGahey, said it was a shocking case that “demonstrates a toxic laddish culture that shows scant respect for female colleagues”.
The woman said she was smacked in front of another male manager.
The one who slapped her laughed and said: “I’m sorry, I had to.” The woman looked at the other male manager and asked: “Is that allowed?” Both the men treated it as a joke, and they also told other employees who later arrived at the meeting.
The woman said that initially she was so “humiliated and embarrassed” she could not even tell her boyfriend or her mother. But when she did tell her loved ones what had happened, they encouraged her to go to the human resources department and a more senior boss. She then did so, telling her employers that she would not return to work before the matter was dealt with.
The firm then suggested she went to a coffee shop to meet the man who had slapped her bottom, along with the more senior manager to whom she had reported the harassment, “to see if they could resolve” the matter, said the commission.
But the woman refused, because she thought the offer was “entirely inappropriate”. She raised a grievance that was not acknowledged for 10 days, she said. An investigation into the incident took five weeks. It upheld her grievance, but contained “untrue and disparaging comments about her”, she said.
The woman then appealed against the contents of the grievance outcome letter, and then resigned as she felt she could never return to work with the employer.
In their response to her appeal, the employer alleged she had dressed and behaved in a provocative manner, which the commission said she “vehemently denied”.
The commission said she was “shocked and extremely aggrieved” that her character had been attacked, saying the letter was victim-blaming and further harassment.
“This young woman felt she had no option but to resign from her job,” said McGahey. “She did not feel her employer was treating her as a victim of sexual harassment, rather it was treating her as a troublemaker. She lost faith that any of her employer’s actions were in her interest or that they ever took her concerns seriously. The investigation made her feel like a perpetrator rather than a victim.”
The commissioner has not named the woman or her employer, in order to protect her identity and give other women confidence that they can highlight sexual harassment in private.
“I think the key message to other women who are also suffering is you don’t have to stand up and have your face known, you can do this in a private way and a confidential way,” McGahey told the BBC.
As part of the settlement agreement, the woman’s employer has agreed to work with the commission on their sexual harassment policies and to train all managers and staff in those policies.
“If you don’t respect your employees, if you don’t take action to protect women, you’re failing women – and ultimately it’ll cost you dearly,” said McGahey. “It’ll cost your reputation, your staff turnover and, through a tribunal, a lot of money.”
