A customer has been ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in compensation and penalties for sexually harassing a worker, in a court case billed as a new frontier.
The Federal Circuit and Family Court decision confirms that customers and other patrons may be held liable for harassing workers such as hospitality staff.
In a decision published this month, Judge Salvatore Vasta found a male worker at a self-storage facility was sexually harassed by two men: a major customer of the business and a contractor.
It was “a very serious example of sexual harassment at work”, Vasta said. The gay man was subjected to sexualised and homophobic comments, including being referred to as “the gay boy” and “poof”, among more explicit remarks.
Under orders made by the court, the two men are jointly liable to pay $90,000 in compensation. Separately, they were ordered to pay penalties of $13,000 each.
Vasta said a Fair Work Act provision aimed at stamping out sexual harassment in connection with work covered all types of perpetrators. The identity of the perpetrator “really does not matter”, he said.
The Fair Work Act would protect a waitress harassed by a patron at a restaurant, Vasta said, “because the waitress would be a worker and the harassment occurred in connection with her being a worker”.
Sydney-based lawyer Justin Penafiel, principal of J Penn Co Lawyers, acted for the worker. He said the decision had implications for all public-facing workplaces,...
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