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Eddie Stobart Ltd pays £14,000 in sex discrimination case
Page 8
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II Eddie Stobart Ltd has been ordered to pay a Carlisle woman more than 114,030 compensation after a 15-month battle to prove she was subjected to sex discrimination at the firm.
An employment tribunal in Carlisle heard evidence that Caroline Ormandy was forced to quit her job as a customer controller at Eddie Stobart's Carlisle headquarters last December because of a culture of sexism and sexual harassment at the family-run firm ( CM 23-29 May).
At one point, said Ormandy, she was told by a colleague that it was a good job she had polished her shoes because he could see up her skirt.
She was also subjected to comments about her personal appearance and had to work in an environment where swearing, belching and breaking wind were common.
Things came to a head when her boss, Paul Wood, verbally attacked her and swore at her in front of her colleagues.
She told the tribunal: "Paul
shouted 'I'm r sick of this.
Will you stop r bothering
me. What r work are you talking about? Just r leave me alone. F"' off?"
Ormandy said that when she complained about the verbal abuse she was told she had "obviously" been pestering her boss and it was understandable that he had been annoyed.
Her complaint was never properly dealt with, she said. and even a personal letter to Eddie Stobart about her grievances was left unanswered.
Last Tuesday ( 29 Oct) the tribunal awarded Ormandy £14,273 in compensation for sex discrimination.
Tribunal chairman John Barton said the swearing by Mr Wood was "demeaning and humiliating" and had been used in as an offensive way as possible to undermine Ormandy's concerns.
He added: "The hopeless and inadequate grievance procedure exposed Miss Ormandy to being victimised in the office."
Tom Newton, appearing for Eddie Stobart Ltd, challenged the notion that Woods's verbal attack on Ormandy had amounted to sexual harassment.
He said: "While the comment was an appalling, shocking comment to make to this employee and has been found to be an act of unlawful discrimination, it doesn't properly attract the label of sexual harassment.'
But Barton said the panel had made its decision based not only on the comment by Wood but on a "whole course of conduct" by the company. He added: "It is denied [by the com
pany] that a sexist culture existed within the company's office. That is contrary to the findings of the tribunal."
The company, which did not want to comment further on the matter. referred to statements it made at the original tribunal hearing in May.
Then, it said: "Eddie Stobart Ltd does not accept that a sexist culture exists within its Carlisle office_ While Eddie Stobart Ltd agrees that the way in which the manager treated Miss Ormandy was abusive and completely unacceptable, we are confused at the finding that this constituted sex discrimination...
The company added: "Eddie Stobart Ltd accepts that the use of bad language in the workplace is not just unacceptable but can be offensive to both male and female employees."
Ormandy lost a further claim of unfair dismissal.