Woman quit job over sex harassment ordeal

A recruitment consultant from Staffordshire was driven from her job after being subjected to a barrage of questions from two male colleagues about her sex life.

Samantha Bell was awarded £6,500 by an employment tribunal for sexual harassment after it heard how she was forced to quit her job of just 10 weeks with Cannock-based Proactive Personnel due to the repeated remarks.

The 23-year-old, from Greenwood Park in Hednesford, told how she was asked by colleague Paul Allport – recently named the firm's Salesman of the Year – if she had ever taken part in outdoor sex with strangers.

The tribunal in Shrewsbury was also told how when she asked Mr Allport a work-related question, he gazed at her breasts and suggested he touch them.

He also was said to have swept her hair from her face as he made an inappropriate comment.

Another office worker, James Plant, is said to have told her, "Don't bend over like that", while suggesting it was making him aroused.

Miss Bell's solicitor told the tribunal: "The harassment ranged from gentle touching, brushing past hair and smelling the claimant's neck, all the way through to much more X-rated language which was completely unwanted and unwarranted.

"This is not the kind of case that could be brushed off as one-off or isolated. It was simply swept under the carpet by management when they found out.

"The campaign of harassment was such that she simply could not stand to work there any longer."

The firm's barrister Stephen Morecroft maintained bosses knew nothing of the problems, adding: "The claimant gave the impression of hating going to work, of being sick before going to work."

Miss Bell, who started the job in May last year, said: "Working in that place was like going back to the 1970s. I felt physically sick because I was so afraid of the abuse I'd receive and the awful things I'd have to listen to."

Proactive Personnel declined to comment today.