Telesales account manager Theresa Bailey was recently awarded £5,146 by an employment tribunal after her manager forced her to wear a badge proclaiming “I’m Simple”.
Bailey, 43 – the only woman on her sales team at Kent direct marketing company Selectabase – told the Ashford tribunal that she had suffered a barrage of abuse while at the firm from July to September 2007.
She said there was a culture of laddish behaviour at Selectabase and her line manager, David Nye, regularly broke wind in her direction during her brief stint at the firm.
She also said that male colleagues leered at female passers-by and joked that women couldn’t park cars.
When she complained about the state of the communal lavatories at the company Nye e-mailed a colleague saying “that’s why we don’t employ women,” she told the tribunal
Bailey was made to wear the badge after she asked for help on how to use a computer system.
She said: “I would just like to emphasise that I have done this on my own. I represented myself. I am very happy it is all over and done with.”
Bailey was awarded compensation under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
