Council boss sacked for sexually harassing her male colleagues

A FINANCE manager was sacked for sexually harassing three male colleagues, an employment tribunal has heard.

The woman propositioned her boss, who had a girlfriend, and insisted that another married man “should be my husband” and that they would “have the cutest babies”.

The Westminster city council worker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sent the married man sexual innuendos and tried to kiss him as they took a walk, the hearing was told.

She “refused to take no for an answer”, falsely accused him of sexually assaulting her, then made unfounded allegations that he was a “predator”, who was “following girls into the kitchen”.

The authority sacked the woman for sexually harassing the three men, but she then claimed that she had been sexually harassed by them. She tried to sue the council and two of the men that she had targeted but her “malicious and vexatious” claims have now been thrown out.

The tribunal heard the woman was an “intelligent” manager with a 2:1 university degree. She was suspended by the council after two colleagues, who were granted anonymity at the tribunal, both complained about her behaviour.

It was heard that she had a “cyclical pattern of behaviour” and would harass them on and off, despite their attempts to distance themselves. She called the first man “sexy” and struck up text conversations with him. She told him, “you looked cute today” and he replied, “thanks, my wife said the same thing”.

The woman sent him “flirtatious” messages as well as sexual innuendos, and the tribunal heard he was “tempted”. She messaged him saying: “I’ll stop messing around. I’ll just let you know. You have my permission to do whatever you want to do with me.”

He replied: “Not sure what you are on about”. The woman “backtracked” and claimed she was talking about him helping her with building work at her London flat.

Later, she told him, “I flirt with everyone”, and when they met up in Sloane Square, in central London, she claimed he kept staring at her breasts.

The tribunal heard that during a walk in nearby Green Park, the man said that the woman tried to kiss him, but he held her shoulders to keep her back.

However, she claimed he sexually assaulted her by groping her breasts. The colleague tried to distance himself, but the “jealous” woman continued to message him, then complained about him speaking to other women at work, claiming he followed one woman into the kitchen.

The woman was sacked for gross misconduct and lost her appeal.

At the tribunal, she lost claims of unfair and wrongful dismissal, sexual harassment, victimisation, and disability and religious discrimination.