Saleswoman wins £15,000 after she was sexually harassed by her male boss who added her to work Whats App group where he shared explicit messages

• Sarah Cowley sued caravan and motorhome seller Auto Sleepers Group Ltd
• Tribunal heard John Goble used sexually explicit language at Hampshire branch 
• Mr Goble sent inappropriate explicit images and messages on WhatsApp group 

A saleswoman won £15,000 after she was sexually harassed by her male boss, who sent sexually explicit images to a work WhatsApp group.

Sarah Cowley told a tribunal that boss John Goble shared sexually explicit posts in the group which were ‘vile, unacceptable, offensive and degrading to the female gender’.

An employment tribunal ruled that he sexually harassed her during her time at caravan and motorhome sellers Auto Sleepers Ltd and the company then sacked her unfairly.

Saleswoman Sarah Cowley has sued Auto Sleepers Group Ltd after a tribunal judge found she was sexually harassed and wrongfully dismissed. Pictured: Company HQ in Willersey, Gloucs

The hearing was told that in early October 2018, in front of her and other female colleagues, Mr Goble described sexual conquests at a company event.

He explained using explicit language he had asked a woman to ‘sit on his face’ while he was either at a training course or in a bar and that as a result he was nearly thrown out.

Ms Cowley said that her male colleagues in the showroom laughed, but she thought it was ‘offensive’ and didn’t find it funny.

The tribunal agreed, with Employment Judge Rayner saying: ‘We agree that the words were inappropriate and unpleasant and they are not the sort of thing a manager should be saying in the workplace.’

The tribunal heard Ms Cowley was at Hampshire branch (pictured) when she was harassed 

In January 2019 Mr Goble added Ms Cowley to a work WhatsApp group without her consent and placed a series of posts of a sexual nature on the group site, including a link to a BBC article on super gonorrhoea.

She told the tribunal she thought he was suggesting that ‘women are dirty and that women catch gonorrhoea, and that her colleague had caught something from women’.

There was also a screenshot of what Ms Cowley said was a woman performing oral sex on a cat, which she described as ‘vile, unacceptable, offensive and degrading to the female gender’.

Other incidents which upset Ms Cowley while working at the Hampshire dealership included Mr Goble shouting at her and telling her to ‘stop mithering me’.

Sarah Cowley described the messages her manager John Goble sent in the work WhatsApp group he added her to as vile, unacceptable, offensive and degrading to the female gender’

Ms Cowley told the tribunal her boss never shouted at male colleagues and this was different treatment because she is a woman.

On another occasion she applied for compassionate leave because her husband had cancer, but Mr Goble rejected her request and told her to use her days in lieu.

He also described her as ‘not the right person for the role’, ‘lazy’ and ‘unproductive’ in front of a colleague.

Ms Cowley was sacked in February 2019, with the company saying it was due to performance issues.

The employment tribunal, in Southampton, Hants, decided that, whilst there were some ‘minor’ performance issues, the ‘reality’ was the company wanted to get rid of her before she gained certain employment rights from working there for two years.

She would have gained protection from unfair dismissal, entitlement to redundancy pay and other rights in respect of the contractual procedures in the handbook or indeed longer notice rights.

The tribunal said: ‘She was very upset by the way her employment was terminated and she had been suffering from depression at the time.’

Auto Sleepers Ltd, trading under the name of Marquis Leisure, was ordered to pay Ms Cowley £15,000 in damages for sexual harassment and wrongful dismissal.

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