Sexual harassment is a serious issue in the society as well as workplaces. Work place sexual harassment can send you away for a long time, but what about sexual harassment that took place outside the workplace? To complicate things further, what about hiring an employee who had previously sexually harassed a current employee of the organization? An Ontario Superior Court judge saw such a case with discerning clarity. A female employee named Linda Colistro currently working at Tbaytel made a complaint about being a subject to constructive dismissal after Tbaytel hired an executive with full knowledge that he had sexually harassed the employee in past.

Justice Fredeau has expressed his acknowledgement on how Ms. Linda Colistro had been sexually harassed by the newly hired executive when they were both employees at the city telephone department located in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The harassment took place a decade ago and contributed to the constructed dismissal of Linda Colistro. The court had described the hiring of the executive with full knowledge of his past misconduct as "flagrant and outrageous conduct".

Mr. Justice John Fregeau added by saying that the hiring had minimized and invalidated the sexual harassment complaints of Ms. Colistro who had been working at Tbaytel for the past 20 years as a respected and valued current employee of the company. Justice John Fregeau also said that Tbaytel's mistreatment of Ms. Colistro "made her continued employment with Tbaytel intolerable such that she was constructively dismissed on February 6, 2007".

The court found that Ms. Colistro suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after her company awarded her with more than $114,000 in damages. The total breaks down into $14,082 for wrongful dismissal and an additional $100,000 in Honda damages which are damages imposed on Tbaytel for acting unfairly.

Sources

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/thunder-bay-tbaytel-sexual-harassment-1.4183785