Udidwot! - High Maintenance Tart

Dear Rosalie

One of our Line Managers was having some sort of session with one of his employees. She then came to see me to ask what he meant when he said she was a 'high maintenance tart'. I said I would try to find out and get back to her. I am not sure that I really want to know! I had to avoid laughing and to buy some time for a considered response.

Rosalie replies:

Unless you can think of a suitably bland interpretation or justify the assessment, then you may be in trouble as this is potentially a constructive dismissal and sex discrimination. If she really is that dim, it might also be disability discrimination! In one famous case, an employer lost at Tribunal after saying to a colleague about his secretary "she is an intolerable bitch on Mondays", as it was held to fundamentally undermine the duty of trust and confidence which employers owe to all their employees, when she heard about it. As it is unlikely he would have said the same thing to a man, it could well be construed as sex discrimination.   

More recently we heard about a struggling female employee, working predominantly in a male environment, being regularly referred to as “princess”, which again could be considered as sexual harassment as the term is unique to her sex and has been used to describe her in a derogatory and sexist fashion. 

You should get together with her Manager and better understand the context of his comments, which will be difficult to justify, so it would be best to apologise. If she has taken offence and an apology does not work, then mediation might be an appropriate means of resolving this conflict. You might also want to think about training for Managers especially as the Worker Protection Act now requires employers to take anticipatory and preventative steps in place to stop sexual harassment.

The guidance provided in this article is just that - guidance. Before taking any action make sure that you know what you are doing, or call us for specific advice.