September 26, 2011
A telesales worker has won a case at an employment tribunal after being sexually harassed by her manager and handed the highest employment tribunal award made in the United Kingdom in the last year.
Petrina Taylor, 36, said that her manager Craig Alcock had bullied and harassed her so much that she was forced to resign from her £20,000-a-year job in August 2009. This week she was awarded £289,877, which included £165,692 for loss of future earnings, £20,000 for personal injury, £18,000 for hurt feelings and £3,000 for aggravated damages, which will be paid by BT.
Mr. Alcock was found to have ‘thrusted’ himself at Miss Taylor and other female colleagues, as well as making inappropriate comments about another employee’s breasts and insulting pregnant women at the organisation.
The court also heard that he made openly racist and homophobic statements about other colleagues, leading Judge David Burton to condemn his behaviour in his ruling. He said: “His management style was one of bullying, using offensive, obscene, homophobic and racist language.”
BT admitted during the hearing at Leeds Employment Tribunal that it was responsible for failing to properly deal with Mr. Alcock’s harassment. The accusations made by Miss Taylor were not properly investigated until after she had quit her role, and Judge Burton noted that: “At no point until so invited by this tribunal did BT consider it appropriate to apologise to Miss Taylor for the conduct of one of their managers and the impact that has had upon her.”
The Tribunal accepted the claim made by Miss Taylor, who joined BT in 2008 in a role selling internet products, that her experiences would mean she would never feel able to return to a similar sales environment.
