Worker pestered for dates by older colleague wins €5,000 for sexual harassment at WRC
Leni Shanahan secured the compensation on foot of her complaint under the Employment Equality Act 1998 against LN Ice Cream Ltd, the operator of the shop on Drury Street in Dublin 2.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Irish Times
Ice cream parlour worker pestered for dates by colleague gets €5,000 for sexual harassment
A former employee of popular Dublin ice cream parlour Spilt Milk, who said she quit after months of sexual harassment from a colleague a decade her senior, has secured €5,000 in compensation. Leni Shanahan was awarded the compensation on foot of her complaint under the Employment Equality Act 1998 against LN Ice Cream Ltd, the operator of the shop on Drury Street in Dublin 2. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) heard that Ms Shanahan was a 21-year-old student at Trinity College Dublin when she was among the first five workers hired for the opening of the shop in March 2024, under the joint branding of Spilt Milk and Roots Acai. She told a hearing in May that, within a month of starting work together, an older colleague told her they had 'sexual chemistry', asked her out and remarked that he 'thought that sex with me would be electric'. Representing herself before the WRC, Ms Shanahan said she primarily had contact with Mr A, her alleged harasser, who was aged in his early 30s, when they were rostered to work together in the shop's basement production kitchen, where there was no CCTV. In the first week of April 2024, she said Mr A asked her to 'go out with him for a drink' in the course of what she called a 'very inappropriate conversation'. The following week, Mr A 'initiated a conversation about sexual experiences with her'. 'He stated that we had sexual chemistry and he thought that sex with me would be electric,' Ms Shanahan said. In late May of that year, Mr A 'made comments about my physical appearance and commented on my white skin, my light eyes, my hair, my lips and my body, my weight and what I wore – and continued the conversation like that, after I expressed discomfort', she said, before outlining a further series of interactions in the same vein. On her last shift before leaving to take holidays in August 2024, she said Mr A gave her a hug and asked her when she was due back, before telling her: 'I hope next time I see you, you won't be here,' before winking at her. The tribunal heard Ms Shanahan did not return to work as planned and resigned on September 10th that year before writing to her employer complaining of sexual harassment and then filing her WRC complaint. Ms Shanahan said a key factor in her decision to quit and pursue a claim at the WRC was hearing that her alleged harasser had made a remark to her boss, health food entrepreneur Dave Meehan, about becoming 'physically aroused' by her 'flirting'. She said she was told while she was away on leave that Mr Meehan had brought up the remark while talking to another employee, Mr B. 'As it was relayed to me, a comment was made [by Mr Meehan] about how [Mr A] would 'get hard' in conversations with me,' Ms Shanahan said, as she cross-examined her former employer. Mr Meehan said in evidence that, since Ms Shanahan's complaint, he had taken training in human resources. 'It's my first time having a shop in the city centre with such responsibility,' he said. 'I'd like to think for the most part I've led with love and care. I've made mistakes along the way like any other human being. Now I'm better equipped to deal with situations like this. That's all I can say – again, I've apologised, and I really do mean it,' he said. Ms Shanahan said she had 'no idea' there was a complaints process for harassment, as she was 'never shown' any policy document in that regard. She confirmed that she was not alleging sexual harassment on the part of Mr Meehan personally. Steven Murphy, another company director, said Ms Shanahan declined to be interviewed for his internal investigation. 'It was a tough situation, something I've never done before. Leni said one thing, [Mr A] said the other,' he said. There was 'no factual evidence we could find to uphold the complaint', he said, and Mr A had 'refuted' her allegations. In his decision, adjudicator Pat Brady wrote that the business could not rely on the statutory defence of having taken 'reasonable and practical steps' to prevent sexual harassment because there were 'no measures of any sort' in place. He wrote that Mr Murphy's investigation finding that Ms Shanahan's complaints did not meet the criteria of sexual harassment were 'only true if no weight is attached to [her] statements… or less weight than is attached to an alleged perpetrator's denial'. Mr Brady said it was 'unhelpful' that Ms Shanahan had declined to participate in the company probe and 'difficult to understand' why she had not complained sooner. 'These factors provide no comfort to the respondent, whose liability is not diminished, but I propose to take them into account in making my award of compensation,' he added. Upholding the claim, he awarded the worker €5,000.
Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Irish Independent
Worker pestered for dates by older colleague wins €5,000 for sexual harassment at WRC
An ex-employee of popular Dublin ice cream parlour Spilt Milk, who said she quit after months of sexual harassment from a colleague a decade her senior, has won €5,000 in compensation. Leni Shanahan secured the compensation on foot of her complaint under the Employment Equality Act 1998 against LN Ice Cream Ltd, the operator of the shop on Drury Street in Dublin 2.
Sunday World
01-07-2025
- Sunday World
Shop worker who claimed he was left out of birthday whip-rounds loses racism claim
'I never saw a foreigner get flowers or presents,' the worker told a tribunal last month A shop worker who claimed racial discrimination saw him excluded as a recipient of workplace whip-rounds organised for those celebrating birthdays has lost his case. 'I never saw a foreigner get flowers or presents,' the worker told a tribunal last month. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has rejected a complaint under the Employment Equality Act 1998 by the worker, Artur Czopek, against TJX Ireland Unlimited in a decision published today. The company, which trades under the TK Maxx brand, had denied allegations of discrimination, harassment and victimisation brought by Mr Czopek, a Polish man working as a part-time sales assistant at one of the firm's shops in Newbridge, Co Kildare since 2017. Presenting his own case at a hearing last month, Mr Czopek told the tribunal that an assistant manager was in the practice of arranging voluntary collections among staff to go towards gifts to colleagues for birthdays or significant events at the store. Mr Czopek said he contributed to these collections, but was 'never selected' on his birthday. Stock image Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 1st 'She always selected Irish employees, and at no time was a non-Irish national the beneficiary of a collection,' Mr Czopek told the WRC. A document presented to the WRC by the employer set out 17 collections done at the workplace from 2020 onward, marking 11 birthdays and six work anniversaries. Gifts were given for 18th, 30th, 40th, 50th and 65th birthdays, and to mark increments of 5, 10 and 15 years' service, the tribunal was told. Mr Czopek told the WRC that after complaining to the store manager, Scott Cooper in July or August 2024 he was assured the practice would cease, but it didn't. Cross-examining the complainant, counsel for the respondent Tiernan Lowey BL, appearing instructed by Hayes Solicitors LLP, put it to Mr Czopek that the collections were only done to mark 'milestone birthdays or events'. Mr Czopek said: 'I turned 40 and nothing happened. No, only selected people were receiving presents.' However, he agreed that the practice of doing the whip-rounds only started in 2020 and that he turned 40 in 2019. Mr Lowey put three examples of other workers at the store who got presents funded by the collections practice to Mr Czopek. These including a Latvian woman, a Polish woman, and a Russian man, he said. 'I don't deny these,' Mr Czopek said. After complaining, Mr Czopek said, he found that his usual Sunday shifts were cut, he was given 'unusual work' and that it took longer to get approval for bathroom breaks. Mr Czopek further alleged he was being harassed on the basis of his nationality by Mr Cooper during a four-week medical absence from work, when he was expected to report in weekly. Mr Czopek also claimed that there were 'no foreigners' being employed at the store since May 2024, but later qualified his position and said that since Mr Cooper took over, 'less non-nationals are employed'. Mr Cooper said hiring across all nationalities 'continues as normal' and denied that there was 'any fall-off in the recruitment of non-Irish nationals' since he took charge of the store. In her decision, adjudicator Bríd Deering wrote: 'The evidence shows that the occasions celebrated are objectively understood as milestone events and the beneficiaries of the collections were of various nationalities, not just Irish employees.' She wrote that Mr Czopek had failed to establish facts that would back up an inference of racial discrimination in connection with the practice of gift collections. Ms Deering, accepted the company's position that all of Mr Czopek's complaints were 'assertions unsupported by evidence' and rejected his case in its entirety.
