Office worker awarded £5,000 after boss constantly broke wind in her direction
A bullied office worker has been awarded £5,000 after her boss raised his right buttock from his chair and broke wind in her direction.
Humiliated mother-of-three Theresa Bailey, 43, was the only woman on a sales team where "laddish" behaviour made her life a misery, and continued despite complains to senior managers.
After she objected to sexist banter a beach ball was thrown at her head - and when she had problems working her computer was ordered to wear a badge saying "I'm simple".
Now an employment tribunal has ruled that Mrs Bailey was sexually discriminated against while working for direct marketing firm Selectabase, in Deal, Kent, and awarded her £5,146.
The tribunal, in Ashford, Kent, heard that Mrs Bailey had joined the firm as a telesales account manager in July of last year - but that the treatment she received was so bad she felt she had no option but to leave by September.
There was a general culture of "laddish" behaviour by men in her office, she said - with her line manager David Nye included.
She said he regularly "lifted his right cheek" and broke wind in her direction throughout her brief time at the firm.
Mrs Bailey said colleagues leered at female passers-by and joked that women couldn't park cars.
And when she complained about the state of the communal lavatories, Mr Nye sent an email to a colleague that said: "That's why we don't employ women".
Complaints about sexist banter simply led to the incident when the beach ball was thrown at her head - and her confusion about using the computer was found amusing by Mr Nye, who told her to wear the "I'm simple" badge.
Feeling she had to take matter further, Mrs Bailey sent an email to Selectabase company director Steve Selwood saying: "The number of times the person at my side would lift up his bottom off the chair and fart and think it's funny is unreal.
"I am no prude but I do think there is a time and a place for that behaviour."
She told the tribunal, in March, that she ultimately felt she had no choice other than to resign.
Mrs Bailey said: "I felt so embarrassed and humiliated, my heart sank."
Mrs Bailey, who previously worked for Kent County Council for eight years, and for Next the fashion store, said that she had never experienced such treatment at any other company - but that it had been an extremely difficult decision to leave.
The tribunal agreed that she would not have suffered the same treatment if she had been a man, and also ruled that she was not properly paid after taking time off to see the dentist when her face swelled up.
After the hearing a Selectabase spokesman said the company had 12 years of excellent employee relations and denied any of its employees had acted in an inappropriate, unfair or discriminatory way.
Contacted by the Daily Mail yesterday, Mr Nye refused to comment. Company director Mr Selwood did not return calls.
On the company website Mr Selwood boasts that his hobbies are snooker and swimming in the Black Sea, and claims that Selectabase are "nice nice, not sugary nice people to deal with".
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