The Labour Court awarded a worker €5,000 for sexual harassment and €5,000 for victimisation by a hotel, allowing her appeal in a determination dated 2 July 2009. It varied an Equality Tribunal decision that had rejected her claims.
The worker, who was employed as a kitchen porter, said male colleagues had subjected her to threatening and humiliating conduct. The Court found the harassment was related at least in part to her gender. The hotel had no harassment policy, management training or formal grievance procedure in place at the time, so it could not rely on the legal defence available to employers.
The Court also found that the worker’s departure from work happened in reaction to her complaints and amounted to victimisation. The victimisation award included €1,000 for loss of earnings. Her equal pay claim was moot: she provided no evidence that she had been paid less than a male colleague, and had not worked at the hotel during the relevant three-year period.