A saleswoman whose colleagues placed bets on who would sleep with her first has been asked to pay the firm’s legal costs after losing a sexual harassment claim.
Molly Craigie was left stunned after discovering that her male colleagues, including her boss, had placed bets on who would ‘bed’ her shortly after she joined East Anglia Home Improvements.
She sued the firm – which describes itself as ‘the UK’s number one home improvement provider’ – and a judge found that betting on who will sleep with a female colleague amounted to harassment.
But she nonetheless lost the case on technical grounds because she brought her claim too late.
Ms Craigie did win an unpaid holiday claim and East Anglia Home Improvements was ordered to pay her £4,775, however the business has refused to give her the money.
But now the company has tried to claw back its legal costs from Ms Craigie, demanding she pays them £7,500.
A tribunal dismissed the costs application because East Anglia Home Improvements made it too late – but the judge added that it would have been unsuccessful even if it had been made on time.
Ms Craigie first joined the business in September 2022 in a role which required her to visit potential customers to confirm contracts, a tribunal held in Watford heard previously.
The saleswoman, who was in her early 20s at the time, claimed she found out within two months of starting that two of her colleagues had ‘placed a wager between themselves as to who would sleep with me first’.
She told the tribunal that the betting on who would ‘bed me first’ came before they knew she was in a ‘long-term’ and ‘committed’ relationship.
Molly Craigie had only just joined East Anglia Home Improvements, a firm that describes itself as ‘the UK’s number one home improvement provider’, when the disturbing office ‘wager’ was allegedly made
East Anglia Home Improvements, a firm that describes itself as ‘the UK’s number one home improvement provider’
Craigie, then in her early twenties, told the hearing she was ‘sexualised and singled out’ simply because of her gender
She said this comment ‘stuck’ with her ‘as it was the first time I felt my colleagues, one of which was a member of management, sexualised me and singled me out, all down to my sex’.
The tribunal also heard that Ms Craigie was told she’d been hired because ‘she would not intimidate elderly customers’.
She left the business in June 2023 and took the company to the tribunal, alleging sexual harassment among other claims.
During proceedings, the business said Ms Craigie was a self-employed contractor and therefore the tribunal had ‘no jurisdiction to entertain her claims’.
Employment Judge Rebecca Peer said there was no evidence that Ms Craigie had ‘directly confronted anyone about the wager or sought further information or even tried to ascertain whether the information given by [her colleague] was true.’
But she added: ‘I find that any such wager is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature’.
The wager allegation was brought ‘out of time’, the judge concluded.
Her complaints of sexual harassment were dismissed.
The business was ordered to pay Ms Craigie £4,775 for holiday pay. It is still unpaid, the court heard.
In the most recent hearing, East Anglia Home Improvements applied to have Ms Craigie pay £7,500 to cover their legal fees relating to the tribunal claim.
Its legal representative told the tribunal that Ms Craigie ‘from the outset has tried to manipulate the Tribunal into hearing a fanciful case’.
The representative said that Ms Craigie was ‘prejudiced’ because the business had decided not to pay the amount it was ordered to pay until its costs award was dealt with.
It was also claimed that she had made an anonymity application in bad faith.
