A CAR PARTS company has been ordered to pay €46,000 to a former employee who was sacked after refusing to have sex with her boss.
The Workplace Relations Commission chose to grant the maximum award available to the woman – two years’ salary.
WRC Adjudication Officer, Marian Duffy said that she was putting the maximum award in place in order to “be effective, dissuasive and proportionate”.
Duffy said the decision was based on “the completely inappropriate behaviour, and the fact the complainant lost her job because of the rejection of such behaviour.”
The evidence given centred around an incident at the company’s Christmas party in a Kilkenny hotel in December 2016.
The woman’s boss, referred to as Mr A in court, propositioned her to have sex with him, and when she refused, made a vulgar and inappropriate comment towards her.
Mr A then proceeded to give her directions to his hotel room, before walking off towards it.
The WRC also found that the woman was subject to a “vile act of sexual innuendo” in a live web chat at the company.
Part of the woman’s job was to answer questions on the company’s live web chat that was being set up by the company.
She came across one exchange where a question posed requested a sexual favour.
When the woman spoke to the Managing Director about the question, the MD told her that Mr A was in charge of the live chat.
Ms Duffy said that the live web chat content, which could be seen by many of the staff, “constituted an intimidating, hostile, offensive, degrading and humiliating work environment for the complainant”.
The woman also revealed in her evidence that the incident occurred just two months after she had started working for the firm.
She had been working in a nearby petrol station where she got to know some personnel at the firm.
During her interview with the managing director and Mr A, where they failed to ask her for any information about her experience or qualifications for the post in question.
She was to be paid €444 a week or €23,088 a year.
