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Dundee Council ordered to pay £100,000 to harassed employee

A former school technician who was subjected to sexual harassment and bullying has been awarded more than £100,000 by an employment tribunal.

Margaret Malcolm, age 46, had complained that male colleagues at Baldragon Academy had scribbled male genitalia on drawings she had done for her Brownie pack, stuck models of a penis to her telephone and had used “coarse industrial language” in front of her when they knew her to be devoutly religious.

A number of examples from 2001 were detailed to the Employment Tribunal which rules that the behavior of her former colleagues had been “of an obscene and shameful nature”.

The Employment Tribunal also concluded that her colleagues had “decided to conduct a planned campaign of obscene behavior against Ms Malcolm because they considered that she was a vulnerable individual who was very naïve sexually and a devout Christian. It was sexual harassment of a serious kind and went on for 7 or 8 months”.

The total awarded to Ms Malcolm comprises £25,000 from Dundee City Council for injury to feelings, £12,500 for psychiatric injury, £25,603 for loss of earnings and an additional sum of some £37,000 for loss of pension rights and lost accrued interest.

Dundee City Council accepted that they owed compensation to Ms Malcolm for the “plainly shameful” conduct of their employees between May and December 2001.