Nightmare Jobs

In these dark days of recession and soaring unemployment, many people have probably come to appreciate more the fact that they have a job at all, whatever it may be. However, some jobs are just not worth having, as two recent cases demonstrate.

In one case, according to this report by CPD Webinars, a waitress was dismissed from her job at a holiday centre in Wales last May. A few months previously she had told her employer that the chalet she lived in with another worker, which was apparently provided by the employer, had a broken shower, damp coming through the walls and soiled mattresses. After waking up one night feeling feverish and scratching herself, she was told by her doctor that she had infected bites which were probably from rat fleas.

Although her employer fumigated the chalet, she was subsequently dismissed, allegedly because the coffee shop was overstaffed. She complained to the Employment Tribunal, which said that although there was overstaffing, no one else was seriously considered. The Tribunal said it was far more likely that her dismissal was triggered by having raised health and safety issues, and awarded her compensation.

And in this case reported on by the Daily Telegraph, an employee was said to have suffered "systematic and continuous" sexist abuse as the sole female employee at a plumbing company which had a "lads culture". Despite having been employed as the firm's administrator, she was ordered to clean the building's toilets and kitchens every day, and was constantly threatened with the sack.

On one occasion, the report says, she was even told to clean an overflowing male lavatory. When she refused, staff called her a "silly cow". To make matters worse, a relationship with a male colleague also ended after managers warned him that she would "cry rape".

She told the UK Employment Tribunal that she was regularly called names by her co-workers, and by her male boss. She said he asked her to clean the toilets and kitchens, but did not ask anyone else to. With reference to her refusal to clean the male toilet, she said it was blocked and overflowing, and there was flooding. "I objected to touching faeces in the male toilet so one of the men went in and cleared the blockage with the handle of a broom. Sam [her boss] called me a bitch and a whore and a silly cow. I was angry and upset and hurt within myself by being put through that abuse."

When she raised a grievance and complained, she was simply told by a senior manager she should expect swearing in an all-male environment. After two years she resigned, when she was the only employee chosen as a possible candidate for redundancy.

She was awarded £9,000 in damages for sex discrimination and constructive dismissal.

Which just goes to show that even if you're not that happy in your job, it could be worse. Does anyone have a similar story?

 

Greg Cain

Greg Cain is an employment lawyer at Minter Ellison Rudd Watts.

 

 




Photo: John Stone