A WOMAN who was sacked after reporting an alleged rape has won more than £30,000 in compensation.
The 36-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told bosses she had been raped at a Christmas party in 2011 by a colleague, who has since been cleared of sexual assault.
The alleged attack was claimed to have been carried out by a man who was a friend of one of the company directors.
The director instructed that the internal investigation into the alleged attack be left incomplete and told human resources to "draw a line under it" and get both of them back to work.
Only weeks after criminal proceedings were under way, the woman was told she was being made redundant.
She described being "humiliated" and "embarrassed" after being told to clean her desk.
She was put on garden leave until her notice period had expired.
Following an employment tribunal in Glasgow, judge Ian McPherson ruled the woman was unfairly dismissed after reporting the alleged attack.
In a written judgment, he said: "We consider that it is reasonable for us to draw an inference that her dismissal was by reason of her having made that protected disclosure."
The woman was awarded £30,464.38 in compensation as a result of her dismissal.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article