CIPD PM report that a council employee has been awarded £18,000 after being continually harassed by a male colleague for three years and managers failed to take her complaints seriously. Ms Poustie’s (P) complaints about a colleague, Mr Ritchie (R), included R: announcing he was in love with P; turning up at another colleague’s house “drunk and crying”, saying he had left his wife because he was in love with P; claiming that a change of hairstyle was evidence that P reciprocated his feelings; spreading rumours that they were having a sexual affair; and waiting outside P’s office and threatening her. P argued that the council failed to take her grievances seriously because managers had started to believe the rumours. In awarding £18,000 compensation, the ET commented that P had undergone a distressing and anxious time, over a period of some three years and that R’s conduct was such that he had been found guilty of harassment and threatening behaviour in court.

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