A Glasgow woman called a "prostitute" and told to go to the gym by her boss has been awarded almost £19,000 in compensation after a judge ruled she was subjected to a "degrading" and "humiliating" environment.
Aishah Zaman, 35, took her former boss Shahzad Younas to court after working at Knightsbridge Furnishing in East Kilbride from July 2018 to April 2020. Her role was as office assistant and later manager, and the court heard she was subjected to regular sexual advances and derogatory statements from Mr Younas.
Aishah is also a local DJ for Awaz FM, a local radio station serving Glasgow’s Asian community, and regularly plays at weddings and birthdays.
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In the years she worked for the company, Mr Younas would send inappropriate messages to Aishah. These included calling her "Motee" (Punjabi for "fatty") and comments such as "you need to start gym", adding "Boss also wants slim smart girls in office".
He went on to tell her her DJing was the "work of prostitutes".
Mr Younas also sent messages to Aishah saying "I fancy you" and offered to buy her a Mercedes "so people get more jealous". This harassment continued when he tried to take Aishah to the cinema at Glasgow's Silverburn in 2019, leading to her pretending to be asleep in order to avoid his messages.
Later the same year, Mr Younas also the claimant graphic images of female genitalia, and instructing her to unpack his clothes, including underwear, as it was "woman's work".
The issue came to a head in April 2020 when she was responded to instructions to rearrange his office, saying she was too busy. Mr Younas responded by shouting at her and "spitting in her face as a result of his shouting".
The employment tribunal report reads: "With both hands he grabbed the claimant’s right arm. He pulled her from the packing area back into the small corridor. He told the claimant to 'get out'. He said to her that he shouldn’t have tolerated her. He said that he had been 'tolerating her for months.'
"They both returned to the main office. The claimant returned a number of keys to the second respondent. They continued to argue. The second respondent insulted her by implying that she was a prostitute. He repeatedly shouted at her, 'I am going to f*** you'. The claimant understood him to mean that he would try to damage or destroy her life or reputation. The second respondent told her to leave immediately and not return."
Aishah threatened to call the police following the incident, and later said the ongoing incident had severely impacted her mental health, with the legal battle also costing her £10,000.
Judge Russell Bradley stated that Mr Younas had "an outdated image of a subservient female", adding "it hardly needs saying that to suggest that the claimant was a prostitute or did the work of a prostitute relates to her sex and is degrading, humiliating and offensive.
"Messages suggesting the desire for a relationship relate to her sex, were unwanted and were humiliating."
Mr Bradley awarded Aishah compensation of £18,984.
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