Injury to feelings

Case 7: The facts

Ms Carney, who had worked as a bar worker for around four months, claimed that senior employees had sexually harassed her. She succeeded in her claim and was awarded £1,500 for injury to feelings, but appealed to the EAT on the basis that this sum was too low.

The ruling

The EAT said that it would normally be cautious about interfering with a tribunal's award of compensation, but that the award in this case was outside the range that any reasonable tribunal should have made.

Carney had been subjected to persistent sexual harassment, and had suffered more loss of dignity when her employers refused to admit that they had discriminated against her. The harassment went on for over three months, and this could not be described as a short period of time. Additionally, the fact that the employees who were harassing her were senior members of staff also should have affected the level of the award.

Carney v Rouf and Islam UKEAT/0353/04