The price of harassment

An East Coast woman is suing the Halifax Bank of Scotland for sexual, racial and religious harassment.

When Mona Awad worked as a corporate banking manager in the branch in Nottingham “one boss taunted her by saying a colleague had been watching her on holiday wearing a bikini, it is alleged.”

She says he also told her he did not want to work with Asians and mocked her for fasting during Ramadan.

Then when she transferred to another branch in Derby, her new boss started to harass her.

‘He asked me in front of my colleagues in a meeting whether I was “s****ing” an employee of our customer. I was devastated.’

He once lifted up her pant leg in front of staff to show them her leg. 

Ms. Awad is suing the bank and her two former managers. Neither man works with the company anymore, but after she encountered such a hostile work environment in two branches it does raise questions about how the bank failed to protect workers from discrimination.

She’s suing for £16.7 million ($29 million in Canadian dollars) in compensation for loss of earnings, injury to feelings, aggravated damages and punitive damages.

If she gets that much, it could be one of the highest amounts awarded for sex discrimination in Great Britain.

I kind of hope she gets it. Companies can be really bad at handling harassment, reacting months after the fact or simply transferring the complainant or putting her on sick leave. 

Nothing will inspire companies to pro-actively tackle discrimination in the workplace like the potential to lose almost $30 million.