The report states that ‘Mr A’ made at least four separate comments insulting her sexuality.
A retailer has been ordered by the Workplace Relations Commission to pay a woman €8,000 after it was ruled that she was harassed about her sexuality.
The woman was a sales assistant at the store and made a complaint about a number of incidents of harassment by one of her colleagues, who is referred to as Mr A in the WRC report.
The retailer heavily refuted the claims but an inquiry by the WRC found that she had been the victim of sexual harassment.
The woman, who is a lesbian, was told by a co-worker that she was “not a normal person”, and asked “why she didn’t want men?”. The report states that Mr A made at least four separate comments insulting her sexuality.
Mr A also attributed mental health issues to gay people in the complainant’s presence and linked the origin of homosexuality to child abuse in a conversation with another colleague.
The complainant told the WRC she found these remarks distressing and made a complaint in May of last year to her employer. However, the woman was not happy with a preliminary investigation into the matter by her employer which upheld two of the complaints. She told the WRC that she didn’t feel she was believed.
The WRC ruled that the complainant was not discriminated against by the company by allegedly having her hours of work decreased, but found that “evidence of a workplace culture where casual talk on highly personal and sensitive issues was permitted without redirection,” author of the report WRC Adjudication Officer, Patsy Doyle said.
The company was ordered to €8,000 to the complainant which is approximately six months of pay, equal to the length of time the harassment occurred.
Mr A was ordered to issue a written apology to the complaint.
All first line managers at the company were also ordered to pay be trained in recognition and management of complaints of harassment within three months of this decision.
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