Case 2304918/2020 · Employment Tribunal
Miss T Donlon v Leslie Easton & Co Ltd and 1 other — 2017
- Case reference
- 2304918/2020
- Decision date
- 1 March 2017
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Ferguson Members
- Venue
- London South
- Panel members
- Ms N Christofi, Ms J Saunders
Parties
3 namedClaimant
Miss T Donlon
Respondents
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe Tribunal, sitting as Employment Judge Ferguson with members Ms N Christofi and Ms J Saunders, gave unanimous judgment on the claimant's complaints of sexual harassment and victimisation against her former employer Leslie Easton & Co Ltd and its director Leslie Easton personally. The claimant withdrew her unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal and written reasons claims. The tribunal found three established acts of sexual harassment by the Second Respondent, namely a comment in June 2017 about removing her clothes, a sexually suggestive comment in 2019 when the claimant bent down to pick up a pen, and persistent sending of memes and videos of a sexual nature via WhatsApp between February 2018 and 1 March 2020. The claimant had asked him to stop sending the messages and the conduct was unwanted; all elements of s.26 EqA harassment were satisfied. The victimisation complaint succeeded: a text message sent on 9 May 2020 in response to the claimant's letter of complaint was found to be a veiled threat to report undeclared cash income, sent because the Second Respondent was annoyed by the protected act. Compensation of £15,000 for injury to feelings was assessed as falling just below the middle of the middle Vento band, with interest of £4,000 calculated at 8% from a mid-period date. The total award of £19,000 was joint and several against both respondents.
Claims and outcomes
4 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfair dismissal | Dismissed following withdrawal by the Claimant. | Withdrawn | — | — |
| Wrongful dismissal | Dismissed following withdrawal by the Claimant. | Withdrawn | — | — |
| Harassment | Sexual harassment under s.26 EqA: comment about removing clothes (June 2017), sexually suggestive comment (2019), and persistent sexual WhatsApp memes/videos (Feb 2018 - 1 March 2020). Remedy combined with victimisation. | Upheld | Sex | — |
| Victimisation | Victimisation by the Second Respondent sending a 9 May 2020 text message containing a veiled threat to report undeclared cash income. Remedy combined: £15,000 injury to feelings + £4,000 interest = £19,000 total, joint and several liability. | Upheld | — | — |
Remedy
Monetary award- Total award
- £19,000
- across all upheld claims
Legal tests applied
5 references- Equality Act 2010 s.26
- Equality Act 2010 s.27
- Equality Act 2010 s.123
- Vento bands
- Derbyshire v St Helens MBC [2007] ICR 841
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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