Author: Priya Cunningham at Thompsons Solicitors (see website)
Continued from Part 1
The power imbalance in the producer/actor relationship means that a woman asserting her right not to be sexually harassed may find herself out of work with a severely damaged career. However, while the employee and employer relationship is unequal in terms of the power balance, woman who are subjected to a detriment because they take a stand against harassment are further protected by the terms of the Equality Act.
The Equality Act specifically provides that a woman raising a complaint of sexual harassment, or sex discrimination, cannot be victimised because she has raised a complaint. Victimisation (see our previous post here) is any action by the employer that puts the employee at a detriment and is as a result of the employee complaining about sexual harassment. For example, if a women reports sexual harassment to her employer and then is dismissed over something minor shortly after.
A woman finding herself in such a situation would be entitled to bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal to enforce her rights under the Equality Act; the Employment Tribunal will award compensation for any breach of the Equality Act.
The Weinstein scandal seems to be an open secret in Hollywood, a poorly covered up abuse that many knew about and ignored. In 2013 Seth MacFarlane had made a joke at the Oscars about how the women nominated for an award no longer had to “pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein”. Workplace sexual harassment can be the same and often people are too scared to report to harassment, either for fear of victimisation, or for other reasons. Misunderstanding and lack of sympathy from colleagues can also prevent people from reporting sexual harassment.
Thompsons have recently represented a Polish female who made a claim against her former employer for negligence in relation to one of her former colleagues who sexually harassed her at work. As in the case of Weinstein, she wasn’t the only victim of that employee, however she was the only one who came forward. What appeared to be even more saddening was that a good number of her colleagues has acknowledged the situation and spoke out against the very same sexually harassing employee in relation to criminal proceedings brought against him by the Crown, yet none of them wanted to testify in relation to civil claim against the employer. We have seen such difficulties many times in varies claims against employers, especially when employees fear for losing their employment. The sad consequence of this is that unless a victim decides to speak out, there is very little solicitors can do to help. Moreover, often one victim coming forward can, just as in the case of Weinstein, encourage other victims to seek compensation as well.
MacFarlane now claims that his 2013 comment was a way of standing up to Weinstein and now condemns Weinstein’s “abhorrent” abuse of power. It is really important to report sexual harassment to the employer and to the Police. MacFarlane’s comment, which was made as a joke, is unhelpful in encouraging victims to come forward and report sexual harassment. Victims should not suffer in silence. We now see that since Weinstein scandal, there are 44 other cases of sexual abuse nature that came into light (see the list here).
Claims in the Employment Tribunal must be brought within 3 months of the date of the sexual harassment or the date on which you are victimised. If you think that you have a claim talk to Thompsons on 0141-221-8840.