Current location:travel >>
Calling a female colleague a 'pretty woman' at work is sex discrimination, tribunal rules
travel98852People have gathered around
IntroductionCalling a female colleague a 'pretty woman' at work is sex discrimination, a tribunal has ruled.Sugg ...
Calling a female colleague a 'pretty woman' at work is sex discrimination, a tribunal has ruled.
Suggesting that a women's looks might help the business is not 'flattering' and risks 'diminishing' her as it wouldn't be said to a man, an employment judge found.
The ruling came in the case of an accounts manager who sued her employers after her boss told her to attend a meeting - because a male client liked 'pretty women'.
Emma Nunn said she was left feeling 'humiliated and undermined' when Adam Crouch extended the invitation purely for her physical appearance, the employment tribunal heard.
He then 'demeaned' her further by telling her to 'calm down' when she refused, before signing off his message with 'babes', it concluded.
Miss Nunn resigned from her £60,000 a year job and is now in line to receive compensation after winning her claim of sex discrimination with the judge ruled the comments were 'reducing her value to the business' and wouldn't have been made to a male colleague.
Calling a female colleague a 'pretty woman' at work is sex discrimination, a tribunal has ruled (Stock photo)
The Leicester tribunal heard Mr Crouch took over trucking firm G. & M.J. Crouch & Son, in the city, from his father in 2015, but Miss Nunn had known him as a longstanding family friend since she was 18.
She had worked part time within the vehicle recovery services business before agreeing on a permanent role on in February 2020.
Miss Nunn told the panel their particular friendship led to a 'blurring of the nature of their working relationship'.
'Mr Crouch did not speak, consult with, or treat any another female employee like he spoke and treated me,' she said.
'The 20 year friendship came with significant consequences - I tolerated his behaviour as best I could.
READ MORE: Calling a woman 'glamorous' at work risks undermining or belittling them, tribunal rules as beauty queen lawyer loses claim that her female boss racially discriminated against her by using the termAdvertisement
'He was not speaking to me like a boss more like a husband disappointed in a wife (me).
'At one level I was a trust confidante, someone to let off steam to, to disclose inner most secrets and feelings to and next I was a normal employee.'
However, the tribunal found this dynamic of not being 'a purely professional working relationship', was actually 'encouraged' by both of them.
In April 2021, Mr Crouch - who is married - sent her a message about an upcoming meeting saying: 'oh yeah you should come as [a customer] is attending - he likes pretty women.'
When she queried this, replying 'I am not coming if just for pretty face', he told her to 'calm down' and signed off with 'ok babes xx'.
In a subsequent email to Mr Crouch complaining about her treatment, she asked: 'Is that all I get recognised for that I am attractive?'
She resigned later that month, saying she felt 'humiliated and undermined' and took the firm to the tribunal, making a series of claims of sex discrimination and harassment.
While most were dismissed, the 'pretty woman' complaint was upheld.
Employment Judge Rachel Broughton said: [We] find that the 'pretty face' comment would not have been said to a man, or an equivalent comment made about a male colleague's physical attractiveness as a reason for being invited to a work meeting.
'It should have been obvious to him that such a comment would be unwelcome.
'It was not flattering [Miss Nunn], it was reducing her value to the business in that context, and what she would contribute to the meeting.
'The Tribunal conclude that the reference to 'pretty' is sexual in nature. It is about her physical attractiveness and in this context, her physical attractiveness to the opposite sex, a customer.
'The implication is that [the customer] finds her sexually attractive and would for that reason get some pleasure at looking at her in the meeting and/or interacting with her.
'The comment was sexual in nature and was said because of her sex, that she is a woman.'
EJ Broughton concluded that by referring to her as 'babes' in his response, he had 'demeaned her further'.
'Babes' in this context was not affectionate, it was making fun of her reaction and the impact his first comment had,' she continued.
'She felt she was being diminished in terms of her importance to the business and her concerns were being dealt with flippantly, [we] conclude that in this context she was genuinely and reasonably, aggrieved at both not being invited and being told that she should come not because of her work but because the male client considered her attractive.'
The judge concluded 'pretty women' and 'babes' were used 'because of [Miss Nunn]'s sex'.
'Mr Crouch would not have dismissed her concerns in the way he did, but for her sex,' she added.
'He was flippant because of the relationship they had but he used those specific terms because of her sex.
'She was upset and felt diminished professionally by his comments and the tribunal consider that it was reasonable for her to feel that way.'
A further hearing to award compensation will take place at a later date.
Tags:
Reprint:Friends are welcome to share on the Internet, but please indicate the source of the article when reprinting it.“Stellar Signals news portal”。http://americansamoa.vip-soft.net/article-90b699236.html
Related articles
Brazil soccer player Gabriel Barbosa cleared by CAS to play during appeal in doping rules case
travelLAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Brazilian soccer player Gabriel Barbosa can resume playing pending an a ...
【travel】
Read moreTaylor Swift RELEASES The Tortured Poets Department! Grammy
travelTaylor Swift has officially dropped The Tortured Poets Department - the singer's anticipated 11th st ...
【travel】
Read moreRita Ora flashes some cleavage in a scoop
travelRita Ora flashed some cleavage in a scoop-neck black vest on Instagram on Thursday as she launched h ...
【travel】
Read more
Popular articles
- Brit living in California shares how expensive it really is to live there
- Hackers claim Belarus fertilizer plant infiltrated to demand political prisoner release
- Swiatek beats Raducanu in Stuttgart quarters. Sabalenka loses to Vondrousova
- Survival expert reveals what to do if you fall OVERBOARD on a cruise ship
- Haiti prime minister: transitional council names new leader
- The NBA playoffs are finally here. And as LeBron James says, 'it's a sprint now'
Latest articles
Ahead of the Paris Olympics, police clear a migrant camp near City Hall
Standing in the shadows of giants: 1,475 statues fill the landscape beside D
NWSL champion Gotham FC sign German goalkeeper Ann
West Ham 1
Malian army says it killed an Islamic State group commander who attacked U.S., Niger forces
Tesla recalling nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks because accelerator pedal can get stuck
LINKS
- California court to weigh in on fight over transgender ballot measure proposal language
- Has Salman Rushdie changed after his stabbing? Well, he feels about 25, the author tells AP
- Atlanta or Afghanistan? Wild shootout breaks out at gas station with one gunman wielding an AK
- For the world's largest democratic exercise, one village's polling officers are all women
- California court to weigh in on fight over transgender ballot measure proposal language
- NWSL champion Gotham FC sign German goalkeeper Ann
- Start of Sen. Bob Menendez's bribery trial is delayed a week to mid
- Apple pulls WhatsApp and Threads from App Store on Beijing's orders
- Arizona State hit with NCAA sanctions for improper football recruiting visits during pandemic
- Republican Wisconsin Senate candidate says he doesn't oppose elderly people voting