06-08-2025
Mad Mex worker's record payout after sexual harassment case
A former staff member at a Sydney franchise of Mad Mex has been awarded a record sexual harassment payout after she took her ex-boss to Federal Court.
Biplavi Magar is due to receive $305,000 after the court heard her former manager Sher 'Sonny' Khan harassed her while she worked at the Norwest — in Sydney's Hills district — franchise in early 2023.
In one January 2023 incident, the court was told Mr Khan asked Ms Magar to accompany him to his car. When she got inside, he showed her pornography on his iPad.
On January 12, 2023, the court heard Mr Khan asked Ms Magar 'sexualised and demeaning questions' about how she got a bruise on her neck and whether she got 'banged'.
Mr Khan's alleged conduct also included asking Ms Magar if she would 'f***' her co-workers – but not himself – some of whom she told the court were 'like 13/14' years old.
'They were my brothers and sisters, like, kind of felt like that because they were younger than me,' she said. 'And, yes, I did tell him that.'
The court was told Mr Khan showed Ms Magar a Coles bag with sex toys, including dildos and vibrators and touched her inner thigh with a sex toy.
'I just wanted to vomit,' she told the court.
'And then he told me, like, 'This is not the usual one that I use on my skank or, like, my whores, but, like, these are the new ones, so you can touch it if you want to'.'
When she raised the issue with Mad Mex head office, the court heard, Mr Khan's lawyers sent Ms Magar a concerns notice requesting monetary compensation and an apology.
In court he denied ever owning an iPad or sex toys or that such items were ever in his car.
He also denied touching Ms Magar with any sex toys or asking her any questions related to sex toys.
Justice Robert Bromwich on Friday awarded Ms Magar $160,000 in damages, eclipsing the previous record of $140,000 for a sexual harassment case.
He also awarded aggravated damages for the legal conduct of Mr Khan and $130,000 for past and future lost earnings.
'I find that she was sexually harassed by Mr Khan and victimised for complaining about his unlawful conduct,' Justice Bromwich said.
'I am also satisfied that his conduct caused her to suffer loss and damage.'
Justice Bromwich noted that Mr Khan was in his early 60s and 'several aspects' of his longstanding health conditions had 'rendered him impotent'.
'This was advanced in an endeavour to support his denial of comments attributed to him by Ms Magar,' he said.
'Although not explicitly put, it was suggested that he could not have been physically aroused, making it improbable that he would have made the comments as alleged.'
The judge, however, found that a physical inability to carry out certain sexual acts did not 'provide any compelling basis for concluding that he did not talk about them as though they had really occurred'.
His lawyers argued that his various medical conditions rendered it 'unlikely, and even to a degree impossible', for him to have engaged in the alleged conduct.
'This conclusion is further strengthened if Ms Magar's evidence in that respect is otherwise accepted,' he said.
'The reason is that boasting or bravado about fictional sexual exploits is notoriously an aspect of sexual harassment.
'The conduct alleged was mostly verbal, and to the extent it was said to have been physical in nature, it was neither protracted nor strenuous.
The judge found Ms Magar presented as a mostly calm and forthright young woman.
'She came across as somewhat naive and unworldly, giving her a real sense of vulnerability,' he wrote in his judgment.
'With the exception of giving evidence concerning her assertions of conduct which, if accepted, clearly amounted to sexual harassment, she was calm and clear.'
Ms Magar was represented by Redfern Legal Centre, and its senior solicitor Seri Feldman-Gubbay.
Ms Feldman-Gubbay said the 'landmark decision should act as a warning to employers: if you tolerate sexist workplace cultures, target vulnerable workers for sexual harassment, or threaten defamation proceedings against employees who speak up about sexual harassment, you will face the most serious consequences'.
'Our client, an international student with no income, would have had no viable path to justice without the support of a community legal centre and pro bono counsel,' she said.
'Despite legal intimidation at every step of this proceeding, our client persisted.'
