Worker offered sex ‘bonus’ by his female boss wins tribunal
A FINANCIAL consultant has won a case against his female boss after she offered to perform a sex act on him if he reached a £180,000 sales target.
An employment tribunal ruled that Sarah Thompson’s comment at a Christmas lunch was sexual discrimination towards Paul Elworthy.
The 45-year-old said: ‘This was said in the presence of a number of people. It made me feel very uncomfortable.’
Giles Barrett, a senior colleague at estate agency Your Move, said he recalled both the remark and the reference to £180,000. He said he had asked: ‘Does that count for everyone?’ As others in the party of 14 laughed, she turned to him and said: ‘No, you’re married.’
Miss Thompson, 51, a financial services director at the firm’s regional base in Chessington, Surrey, admitted there had been a ‘lot of banter’ at the lunch in 2013.
‘Made me feel very uncomfortable’
She said: ‘There was a lot of people talking, having fun and celebrating success.’
But Miss Thompson added: ‘I categorically deny making this comment. That kind of language is not in my vocabulary.’
It was also ‘strange’ that Mr Elworthy had not discussed the subject in the ensuing two years when they were working together, she said.
The hearing in Croydon, South London, heard that he made the claim on the day he resigned from his job in September 2015 after 14 years at Your Move.
In its judgment, the tribunal said: ‘It was a highly sexualised comment made because of the claimant’s gender.
‘Miss Thompson would not have made an equivalent comment to a woman.’
Mr Elworthy now has a job with a financial planning firm in Dartford, Kent. A future hearing will set his damages.