“I am going to follow you home, rip your clothes off and rape you,” a colleague once told her.
Being a female in construction is a tough job.
Add being subjected to relentless sexual harassment – from touching, derogatory comments and pornographic material – and it is downright unbearable.
Kate Mathews knows this first-hand.
“I am going to follow you home, rip your clothes off and rape you,” a colleague once told her. It was this threat that caused the road construction worker to quit her job at a Melbourne civil engineering company.
Now, Ms Mathews has been awarded more than $1.3 million in damages by the Victorian Supreme Court for the barrage of harassment she endured at work between August 2008 and July 2010.
Melbourne sex harassment payout: Worker Kate Mathews wins $1.3m in personal injury damages https://t.co/5LGY6khXAU
— Ian Royall (@IanRoyall) December 17, 2015
Top Comments
Who on earth says things like that? Seriously, 'I'm going to follow you home and rape you'? How does anyone let those words come out of their mouth - and think it's OK? Bravo to you, Kate, for standing your ground and holding this company responsible, it must have been very hard. I hope these abusive workers have some kind of penalty applied to them too - although I won't hold my breath.
So glad she won. Is $1.36m enough? Not sure.
Needs to be enough to cover everything she is going / gone through, as well as sending a message to other work places .