Woman asked to clean lavatory gets £25,000 payout

A FEMALE council worker allegedly told to clean a kitchen and lavatory because they “needed a woman’s touch” has accepted £25,000 to drop a sex discrimination case.

Sharon Douglas was the only woman employed at Causeway Coast and Glens Borough council’s depot in Limavady, County Londonderry.

She began work in 2013 as a store person but resigned in May this year. She claimed she was denied overtime and that some training was only offered to male colleagues.

Ms Douglas said on one occasion she was instructed to go to another council site ahead of an inspector’s visit “to clean the kitchen and the toilets” which she said wasn’t her job. “I was told that the toilets ‘needed a woman’s touch’,” she said.

The council settled the case without admission of liability.

Ms Douglas said: “I felt I had to prove myself more than a man.”