The Co-op has been told to pay a female HGV driver £19,000 after a tribunal found it minimised the sexual harassment she received by a colleague and failed to put adequate safeguarding measures in place.
Charlotte Brooks brought claims of harassment related to sex, harassment of a sexual nature and direct sex discrimination against the Co-operative Group in relation to the behaviour of another lorry driver Kelly Dawson.
An Exeter employment tribunal heard how Dawson started behaving badly towards Brooks in 2022. During driver training, Dawson made a comment of a sexual nature about Brooks to driving instructors.
She said she had been “very upset and gutted” by the comments and that there were further incidents of bullying behaviour towards her from that point.
A formal grievance was raised by Brooks, which found that Dawson had engaged in inappropriate conduct and she was dismissed in December 2024 after a disciplinary hearing found there had been a sustained period of bullying and harassment.
However, Dawson appealed and Co-op distribution general manager Bruno Krssak overturned the dismissal in January 2025, replacing it with a final written warning after concluding that the decision to sack Dawson was procedurally flawed.
When Brooks was told Dawson would be returning to the workplace and she asked about safeguarding arrangements, the tribunal said she was informed nothing had been discussed.
She later signed herself off as unfit for work due to work related stress but returned in February 2025.
In her decision, judge Paula Volkmer said: “Given that Mr Krssak clearly was responsible for safeguarding of Ms Dawson, I find that it was also his responsibility to also consider measures to safeguard the claimant, or to give a clear instruction to another named individual to do so.”
The tribunal also concluded that Krssak’s approach was influenced by a “perhaps subconscious” view that sexual harassment between two women was less serious than it would have been between employees of opposite sexes.
The judge added: “[Krssak] viewed this as an ordinary workplace ‘conflict’, even though in oral evidence he could not point to anything done by the claimant.
“He did not view the conduct as sexualised. A point he did not even concede in cross examination, despite the obvious sexual nature of the words.
“I find that the ‘reason why’ was sex.”
The tribunal awarded Brooks £16,500 for injury to feelings, with interest bringing the total award to £19,042.39.
Her claim of victimisation was dismissed.
