Woman awarded €15k over sexual harassment by co-workers

A former employee of a major retailer has been awarded €15,000 by the Labour Court after she was subjected to campaign of sexual harassment by co-workers that lasted over two years.

The court found the woman, who was employed at the retailer from 2007 to 2013, gave “credible evidence to the best of her recollection” of the harassment which lasted from February 2010 to November 2012 and which involved comments, insults and innuendo of a sexual nature. It also found the company did not do enough to prevent it.

The woman’s work involved stacking shelves in an aisle of the store at night. Two male workers performed similar duties in an adjacent aisle. In or about February 2010, one of them, Mr A, asked her to go out with him on a ‘date’. She refused, telling him she was married. Shortly after that he asked her to move in with him.