The Telegraph reported that Deborah Oziel was granted the compensation for injury to feelings and sexual discrimination after she was repeatedly sworn at by a male colleague.
In several instances, male colleague Matthew Henderson was found to have verbally abused Oziel while working at a Sainsbury’s store in East Finchley, north London.
On one occasion, Henderson called Oziel a “f***ing bitch” after she spoke to him about not performing his assigned duties. On another, Henderson told a customer and another female employee to “f*** off”.
He also told a male worker that he planned to purchase a fake gun in order to intimidate Oziel.
“The term used by Matthew Henderson towards the claimant was ‘bitch’, which we find is primarily used against women, and even if used against men, it still has a sex-related offensive element,” the judge said. Oziel was subsequently awarded £59,333.14 in compensation.
According to The Telegraph, Oziel was initially blamed for mismanaging Henderson but these claims were dismissed by the tribunal, which found that inquiries into her conduct were flawed and based on unsupported claims.
After the first incident that involved swearing, Henderson said that he had Asperger’s syndrome, a previously used diagnosis on the autism spectrum.
However, the judge said it was “entirely unclear what the impact of Asperger’s syndrome is on him and its relevance to the issues in this case”.
It is understood that Henderson was not asked to be a witness during the trial, as Sainsbury’s argued that providing testimony would place excessive stress on him. The judge though argued that there was not much to support the claim that Henderson was unfit to provide testimony.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “This case does not reflect the great care that is taken to safeguard our colleagues and the policies we have in place to support that. We are reviewing this complex and sensitive case to make sure we learn from it and do better by all our colleagues in the future.”
