An admin worker has won almost £20,000 after her elderly male boss suggested she should take her clothes off in the office while working on a hot day. Tina Donlon was wearing shorts to keep cool at work in the summer when Leslie Easton made the sexist remark, an employment tribunal heard.
The 78-year-old said "Well, we keep telling her to take all her clothes off, but she won’t have any of it" in response to a customer remarking on what she was wearing. The tribunal also heard Mr Easton said "ooh, while you’re down there, love" when Miss Donlon went to pick a pen off the floor, insinuating that she should perform a sexual act on him.
And she was also subjected to "persistent" WhatsApp messages of nearly 150 sexual and misogynistic "memes and videos" from her boss. When she was asked about his behaviour, she was told Mr Easton was "old school" and "from a different generation".
But the tribunal has now ruled she was the victim of sexual harassment and awarded her £19,000 in compensation. The hearing, held in Croydon, south London, was told Miss Donlon worked as a part-time administrative assistant for Mr Easton's glazing firm in nearby Sidcup.
But soon after she started work in April 2014, Mr Easton began making "rude remarks" to her. In June 2017 it was a hot day and she was wearing knee-length shorts that resembled a skirt, the tribunal heard.
A customer remarked that she was lucky to be able to wear shorts to work and Mr Easton said "well we keep telling her to take all her clothes off but she won’t have any of it". The company received a letter from the customer, complaining about this incident, in which she said: "An older gentleman with grey hair appeared in the office. He commented on our conversation. His reply surprised, disgusted and appalled me."
Justin Easton, Mr Easton's son, asked Miss Donlon about the incident and when she explained what happened he replied "Oh well that’s my dad, he’s old school". The tribunal heard Miss Donlon started receiving offensive messages from Leslie Easton on WhatsApp in February 2018.
She produced what she described as a sample of these messages, consisting of 146 'memes' and 31 videos. Employment Judge Corinna Ferguson said: "All are offensive in some way. We would describe them collectively as extremely distasteful, crude and many are shockingly racist.
"Around 50 of the memes are of a sexual nature. Some are simply bad, misogynistic jokes. Others include pornographic images. One includes a doctored image of a young naked boy with adult genitals.
"We find it extraordinary that a director and owner of a company would send messages of this nature to any employee. She did not find the messages funny... she felt humiliated and victimised by receiving them."
Miss Donlon said she asked Mr Easton to stop sending these messages to her, but he ignored all of her requests. In September 2018 Mr Easton created a group on WhatsApp called 'Friends' and added Miss Donlon to the group.
Messages were shared in the group with a similar level of frequency to the messages she was receiving directly from Mr Easton. They were also of a similar nature.
She asked several times for Mr Easton to remove her from the group as she did not know how to remove herself. Eventually she asked her daughter to help her in February 2020.
The tribunal also heard of the pen incident, which Miss Donlon said left her feeling humiliated, embarrassed and intimidated. Miss Donlon was sacked in May 2020 and she then hand-delivered a letter to Mr Easton complaining of "constant sexual remarks from you" and messages with "sexual undertones".
The tribunal ruled these messages and the comments made by Mr Easton constituted sexual harassment. Judge Ferguson added: "We accept that they had the effect, even if not the purpose, of violating [Miss Donlon's] dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her.
"These were extremely offensive messages sent by the owner and director of the company to a junior employee. The WhatsApp messages were very persistent and relatively serious in the spectrum of material of a sexual nature. Some of the pornographic images were disturbing."
She also won a claim of victimisation, after Mr Easton sent her a "veiled threat" by text. In total she was awarded compensation for injury to feelings in the sum of £15,000 plus interest of £4,000.
