The Employment Appeals Tribunal has awarded Pamela McCann of Bellaghy, County Sligo, compensation of over €7,000 “entirely inappropriate” remarks from a male superior at Homebase House and Garden Centre in Santry, Dublin.
Ms McCann had worked for15 months at Homebase before resigning in October 2008, which the court ruled the the resigation was in fact a constructive dismissal becase of the stress caused by the store manager’s sexual comments and fear of being fired. Ms McCann spoke to another manager about the inappropriate behaviour the situation deteriored further and the store manager began ignoring her.
In another incicdent, it was claimed that the store manager’s response to Ms McCann’s pregnancy was to ask her what she “intended to do about it”, implying abortion. It was also claimed that a member of the human resources staff was “quite shocked” by the store manager’s remarks about McCann’s clothes.
The court ruled that comments were “unwelcome and could reasonably be regarded as sexually offensive, humiliating or intimidating”.
A lesson for any employees is that Ms McCann won her case because she reported the inappropriate behaviour to another manager and discussed it with human resources staff. So the problems were “on the record”. It is also very useful to keep accurate contemporary written notes about every incident, including the exact wording of any comments and the names of any witnesses. It is also appropriate in certain circumstances to rely on CCTV in the workplace (for example, where there is inapporpriate physical contact). However, it is inappopropriate to make illicit recordings of telephone conversations or to take illicit video recordings. In the case of cyber-bullying, any emails or texts or instant messages should be kept as evidence.
The basic steps you should take are:
- Keep accurate records about all incidents
- Do not respond in any way to provocation
- Speak to a solicitor
- Report incidents to human resources or more senior management
Employers and their employees have duties by law that your solicitor will explain to you.