BDSM MEDIA NEWS!!!!
August 11, 2014
£30,000 payout victory for mother who was groped by boss, then sacked
Source: Standard.co.uk. - Standard.co.uk - UK
UK - A mother-of-two has won nearly £30,000 compensation after an employment tribunal heard how she was groped by her boss and compared to a bondage model.
Recruitment manager Jennifer Newman, 34, told how she was called “proper top totty” in front of clients and accused of dressing like “someone who works in a dubious establishment.”
Widowed Ms Newman was subjected to a sustained campaign of harassment by Steve Hoad, managing director of cleaning firm Hydro Cleansing.
The Croydon tribunal panel unanimously upheld her claims and ordered Mr Hoad to pay £29,526 in damages and more than £12,000 in legal costs.
After her victory Ms Newman spoke of her relief at “justice prevailing”. Her problems had begun when Mr Hoad emailed her a picture of a semi-naked woman in bondage gear, asking: “Have you got a suit like this?” She told the tribunal she then had to endure the laughter of colleagues when he added: “She does look like you.”
On another occasion he threw a pen to the floor in front of clients and asked her to pick it up. When she refused and walked off he said “Look at that: proper top totty” to laughter from the clients.
She said the final straw came when Mr Hoad groped her bottom when she asked for a salary advance to take her two daughters on holiday.
Ms Newman, whose husband died in a car crash in 2009, said: “I felt absolutely violated, upset and demeaned.
“It was as though Steve felt that by asking for an advance on my salary it gave him the right to touch me.”
Ms Newman, who earned £32,000 a year, reported the incident to the firm’s human resources department, but the details were leaked to Mr Hoad’s wife Carol, who also worked for the firm.
Mr Hoad’s inappropriate comments escalated, Ms Newman said, after she underwent breast enhancement surgery shortly after joining the firm.
Referring to the bondage email, she said: “I did not report this at the time as I was relatively new in my position and I really needed this job due to my personal circumstance and did not wish to rock the boat.
“I kind of hoped that after a while Steve would get bored making such comments and sending offensive emails.”
But when she decided to approach him to ask for a loan to pay for her family’s holiday in Cornwall she said he groped her left buttock in his private office at the firm’s Croydon depot.
She reported his behaviour to HR manager Nicole Moore in confidence but said Mr Hoad’s wife found and “put two and two together” and believed the pair were having an affair, the tribunal heard.
On returning from her holiday Ms Newman, from Croydon, was told “within an hour” she had been made redundant.
Kayleigh Long, representing Ms Newman, told the hearing: “She was pushed out of the company because of her rejection of behaviour by Mr Hoad”. She said a letter sent during the litigation referred to Ms Newman wearing a crop top without a bra after her breast enhancement and said she dressed like “someone who works in a dubious establishment. Ms Newman found this very upsetting and degrading.”
She said after the verdict: “This means a lot to me...I’ve made a stand for lots of women who are afraid to speak out”.
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www.standard.co.uk.
