Worker who compared breasts with other staff loses harassment claim

Worker at accountancy firm where staff regularly compared breast sizes loses discrimination case after she claimed female colleague harassed her by ‘squeezing’ her breasts in office

• Emma Wilson, 51, claimed colleague Nadia Galazis harassed her while at work
• The pair had worked together at AGK Partnership – a London accountancy firm
• Ms Wilson claimed Ms Galazis squeezed her breasts but lost discrimination case
• A tribunal heard the women regularly compared breast sizes while at work 

An employee at an accountancy firm where staff regularly compared breast sizes has lost a discrimination case after claiming a female colleague harassed her by ‘squeezing’ her breasts.

An employment tribunal heard that Emma Wilson, an administrative worker, and Nadia Galazis, a consultant, often discussed their breasts and compared sizes while working together at AGK Partners – a finance and accountancy advice practice in London. 

However, one one occasion – when she was said to have been wearing a ‘very tight and revealing blouse’ – Ms Wilson, 51, claimed that Ms Galazis reached out and squeezed her breasts in the office.

She also claimed that Ms Galazis squeezed them on another occasion and touched her bottom ‘with a finger, pen or pencil’ several times.

An employment tribunal heard that Emma Wilson and Nadia Galazis often discussed their breasts and compared sizes while they worked together at AGK Partners (office pictured)

But on complaining, her bosses spoke to other employees who concluded that the two women often discussed their breasts and that the accuser was ‘a willing participant’ in these conversations and therefore had not been harassed.

After resigning from her job, Ms Wilson sued – claiming constructive unfair dismissal and sex discrimination. 

However, the tribunal threw out all her claims, ruling that Ms Wilson had at no point groped her and she had never been harassed.

The hearing, held in Watford, was told that Ms Wilson met Ms Galazis in 2015 when they both worked elsewhere. 

Ms Galazis introduced her to AGK Partners and Ms Wilson began working there in 2016 until 2018, when she resigned.

In her resignation letter on April 30, Ms Wilson wrote that Ms Galazis ‘verbally and physically harassed’ her between March and April 2018 and referred to her ‘unprofessional behaviour’.

When quizzed by bosses, Ms Galazis denied that she ‘touched, let alone squeezed’ her breasts but said Ms Wilson wore a ‘very tight and revealing blouse’.

She said that on that occasion she simply touched Ms Wilson’s blouse and ‘made a reference’ to her and the size of her breasts.

Ms Wilson, an administrative worker at the accountancy firm, claimed that Ms Galazis squeezed her breasts in the office but this was dismissed by a tribunal. (File image)

A co-worker confirmed this and said all three of them were ‘laughing at the time’ and Ms Wilson was a ‘willing participant’, the tribunal was told.

After seeing the resignation email, Ms Galazis then wrote an email to their co-workers, asking them to email her boss with any instances in which they had witnessed behaviour like this from her.

She wrote: ‘There is no need to copy me in.’

The employment tribunal called this ‘wise and thoughtful’ as it offered anonymity and confidentiality, and pointed out ‘it is not the wording used by somebody who knew that she had much to hide’.

The employees’ responses backed up Ms Galazis’ version of events rather than Ms Wilson’s claims.

The tribunal heard that an internal investigation rejected Ms Wilson’s allegations and was sent to her.

One excerpt read: ‘My investigations have also shown that prior to this incident there were numerous conversations between you and Ms Galazis about breasts.

‘The conversations revolved around breast size and comparisons of her breast size and your breast size. You had no objection to these conversations and were again a willing participant.’

Other concerns were raised about Ms Wilson’s work and she resigned on April 27.

Ms Wilson told the tribunal that her boss, Alex Christofi, ‘laughed’ when she told him she was resigning.

In her resignation email, she said she was overworked and struggling without any help, along with her claims of being harassed.

She had also emailed Mr Christofi earlier that year saying she felt ‘worthless’ and was ‘breaking my back for nothing’.

This led the tribunal to conclude this was the reason for Ms Wilson’s resignation, not the alleged harassment of Ms Galazis.

Employment Judge Robin Lewis said: ‘We have considerably more sympathy for [Ms Galazis] in all of these respects than the outcome of this judgment might suggest.

‘When we come to consider [Ms Galazis’] constructive dismissal we accept as stated above that the office was under-managed, muddled (at times even chaotic), and that job roles and responsibilities were left unclear.

‘She was disappointed by the outcome of the grievance in March, and unhappy about the outcome of the disciplinary in April.

‘We find that the accumulation of those events, along with her sense of being overworked and undervalued, led her to feel that she had had enough of working for [AGK].’

All Ms Wilson’s claims were dismissed.

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