Starplan: Woman awarded £19k for Christmas party harassment

A pistillate who says she was near feeling unsafe successful the workplace aft being sexually harassed astatine a Christmas enactment has been awarded astir £19,000.

Shirley Lyons claimed a workfellow from Starplan had touched her bottom, hugged her from down without her consent, and made comments astir her breasts.

An employment tribunal said this "amounted to unlawful intersexual harassment".

Ms Lyons worked for the furnishings institution successful Portadown, County Armagh.

She was a decorator and income consultant.

After complaining astir the incident, she said she was victimised by immoderate colleagues and that her leader had failed to support her.

"My workplace nary longer felt harmless for maine and I felt physically sick going into enactment successful the mornings," she said.

"I stood up to behaviour that shouldn't beryllium happening successful immoderate workplace and my manager, and my employer, wholly failed to support maine some from the harassment and from being victimised afterwards.

"I had nary enactment but to resign."

Ms Lyons, 60, was the lone pistillate employee, on with six antheral employees from the Portadown and Dungannon showrooms, to be the company's Christmas enactment successful December 2017.

She said she had been "surprised and upset" by her colleague's behaviour astatine the party, which besides included a proposition that they mightiness person an affair.

She subsequently complained to her enactment manager and a grievance probe was carried out.

Ms Lyons aboriginal raised allegations of victimisation against 3 of her colleagues, claiming she was being ignored, excluded, threatened, and subjected to intimidating and abusive connection and behaviour aft making her archetypal complaint.

"I was threatened, I was wholly isolated by the different ones," Ms Lyons told the BBC.

"At times I thought it was truthful hopeless, I thought, 'what connected earth?'

"But my spot came from I knew precisely what happened.

"I lived it, I experienced it, and that was the biggest happening for maine - I could archer the information and I would beryllium lasting by that.

"And I thought if this is the attraction they're going to springiness me, I'll basal my ground. I volition combat this."

Ms Lyons's complaints of intersexual harassment and victimisation were partially upheld by the employment tribunal.

The tribunal sheet recovered her assertion of unfair dismissal was good founded, portion different lesser claims were not upheld.

Ms Lyons, who waived her close to anonymity successful the proceedings, was awarded £18,857.18 successful compensation.

The tribunal besides recovered that Starplan had not enactment successful spot "any guidelines oregon acquisition for standards of behaviour and the depletion of intoxicant for attendees" astatine the Christmas party, and that "the astir elder idiosyncratic contiguous was not formally delegated work for supervising".

The Equality Commission, which supported Ms Lyons, said her lawsuit highlighted important lessons for employers.

Chief commissioner Geraldine McGahey said enactment societal events were an hold of the workplace.

She added that the leader should person taken enactment to forestall victimisation by colleagues aft it became known that Ms Lyons had formally lodged a grievance with the company.

"Work parties and outings tin beryllium an important constituent of reward, designation and squad gathering but, similar immoderate different country of work, employers indispensable guarantee everyone attending is harmless and their dignity is respected, and if that doesn't happen, and unit person origin to complain, they indispensable beryllium protected from victimisation," she said.

BBC NI is attempting to interaction Starplan for its effect to the tribunal's findings.