WOMAN’S WORKPLACE ORDEAL

Sexually harassed by assistant and ‘nothing was done’

NUMEROUS sexual harassment incidents at her now former workplace, left a Durban woman feeling like she was trapped inside a tornado for the last three years.

She had started working for an airline in 2015 when she became the target of her former assistant.

As a reservations manager, she had only been working there for a few months when the first incident took place.

She was 33 years old at the time, and her assistant was only 22, nearly 11 years her junior, yet he still crossed the line.

She said he said many inappropriate things to her, used strong language and was aggressive at times.

“What made matters worse was that I was not dressed in the work uniform. I was told I would not get my uniform until the sexual harassment issue was resolved.”

Other colleagues apparently learnt about the sexual harassment when an incident took place in front of them.

“They’ve taken my female hood away from me, and they have sabotaged me,” she said.

She escalated the sexual harassment by reporting it.

“*John was very flirty towards me, making suggestive remarks about him being the boss and me being his submissive. When I enquired from him what he was referring to, he suggested I watch the movie 50 Shades of Grey to get an idea,” she said.

She told him many times to stop the inappropriate remarks and suggestive behaviour, but he continued.

“Once I asked him to switch on the aircon, and in front of one of the managers he said ‘why don’t you take off your dress so that we will feel cooler?’

“I asked him what time he was taking his lunch break. He responded that ‘it is too hot and instead of having lunch he would rather f*** me’,” she said.

These, she said, were just some of the incidents that took place.

At that time, the director was sick and apparently also out of the country so she could not tell him about it.

She said one of the sales managers spoke to John about how to behave in the workplace because he would end up with an internal complaint in writing.

She formally reported the matter to one of the directors in 2015 and it has apparently not been finalised.

She felt the sexual harassment was a gross infringement on her human and constitutional rights.

She no longer works for the airline, but longs to return to aviation. “I’ve put out my CV. I want to work.”

* The name of the alleged perpetrator has been changed.

TRANSNET Port Terminal and Pipelines staff march around the Kingsmead Office Park in Durban wearing black and orange this week to bring awareness to the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign.