Courts have awarded a gay man £62,525 in compensation after a former colleague jiggled her breasts at him and persistently made offensive comments about his sexuality.
An employment tribunal in Reading in January and February last year heard how Allwyn Rondeau, 46, was also called a ‘batty boy’ at work at Heathrow Terminals 1 and 4.
Rondeau, a security guard working for security firm G4S, said that fellow employee Lucy Chilton placed his hands on her breasts and said that he “wouldn’t know what to do with a woman,” and “come on, give it to me”.
Although he did not initially report the incidents, Chilton reacted to his rejection of her advances by falsely accusing him of inappropriate sexual behaviour. He was immediately suspended, stripped of his pass and ‘frogmarched’ from work.
Her claim was rejected after an investigation but when he decided to complain about Chilton’s harassment, she was not suspended from security firm G4S.
Rondeau won the court award against Chilton and G4S boss Brian Johnson for discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation for the initial harassment and the different ways in which the two complaints were handled.
He told the Daily Mail: “It was justice that I wanted, against her and the management, for what I have been through every day for the past two years.
“I’m happy, but I’m still angry because I know she has not been touched. I had to endure one-and-a-half day’s of cross-examination and when you’re not very well, it’s not very nice to go through.”
A spokesman for G4S Aviation Service confirmed that Chilton is still employed by the firm.
Last year, a gay church worker who quit his job after less than a year on claims of sexual harassment was awarded more than £35,000 at employment tribunal.
In 2006, a gay man who demanded £5m compensation from HSBC bank for discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation lost his case at tribunal.
