CALLING a female colleague “pretty” at work is sex discrimination, a tribunal has ruled.
Suggesting her looks might help the business risks “diminishing” her as it would not be said to a man, an employment judge found.
Emma Nunn sued her boss, Adam Crouch, after he invited her to a meeting because a male client liked “pretty women”.
He “demeaned” her further by telling her to “calm down” when she refused.
Accounts manager Miss Nunn quit her £60,000 job after the incident at trucking firm G. & M.J. Crouch & Son in Leicester, the city tribunal was told.
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She said Mr Crouch was a long-time friend and that led to a “blurring of the nature of their working relationship”.
Miss Nunn told the panel: “Mr Crouch did not speak, consult with, or treat any another female employee like he spoke and treated me.
“The 20 year friendship came with significant consequences - I tolerated his behaviour as best I could.
“He was not speaking to me like a boss, more like a husband disappointed in a wife [me].
“At one level I was a trusted confidante, someone to let off steam to, to disclose inner most secrets and feelings to, and next I was a normal employee.”
Judge Rachel Broughton upheld the ”pretty woman” sex discrimination claim but others, along with harassment claims, were dismissed.
Compensation will be decided at a later date.