The ERA says the grievances caused the man to go into a downward spiral. An openly-gay worker has been awarded $13,000 in compensation after being mocked with a limp wrist gesture and called a “fucking faggot” by one of his employers. The man named only as ‘P’ in the Employment Relations Authority decision was hired as a caregiver for a couple’s 15-year-old son, who has a rare chromosome disorder. When the family went on holiday for a few days in December 2012, the caregiver was left with a list of odd jobs his employers wanted him to carry out at their farm. The two sides disagree on what those tasks were, with the couple claiming it only wanted him to work outside the house on jobs such as cleaning windows and mowing lawns. However ‘P’ says the weather was bad and he was told over the phone to work inside. He stripped the couple’s bed, and maintains he did so because when he went in to vacuum the room he saw something which looked like ‘cow poo’ on the unmade bedding. The couple denies there would have been anything like this on their bed, which they say was made. They also say cleaning the worker says he carried out was not done. In a meeting between ‘P’ and his employers, they accused him of living in their house, sleeping in their bed, entertaining men and smoking drugs. He was asked “what the hell’s been going on here” by his male employer, whose wife added something like “you’re disgusting, I can’t even look at you! What the fuck has been going on in my house?” ‘P’ says the haranguing went on for 20 minutes and he was scared and became tearful. He says the woman then said “oh poor P” and talking in a baby voice added “are we hurting your feelings?” while dropping her wrist up and down “trying to emphasise a limp wrist of a gay man”. Later on, when he was trying to leave the property, he says the woman called him “a fucking faggot”. She has admitted doing so to the Authority, saying it was “in the heat of the moment”, and says she probably also mocked him with a limp wrist. However she says the ‘discussion’ was not threatening and she was simply trying to find out what he had been doing in her home – and was not satisfied with his explanations. “Certainly, the employer returned to their home and found things effectively in a state of flux with jobs only partially completed, some jobs not attempted at all, and the house displaying the evidence of having been lived in while they were away, something which they certainly never had in their contemplation,” the decision reads. The couple demanded the man pay back wages he’d been paid in advance, accusing him of ‘stealing’ as they believed he hadn’t done the work he’d been asked to. The male employer boxed the worker’s car in with a tractor so he couldn’t leave the property, as they wanted the money back. P said he was calling the bank, but called the police, and was told to walk away from the property, which he did, and was met by a patrol car. His boss then followed the police back to the station and as the decision reads, “police had to exercise something of a subterfuge to get P out of the station without a confrontation”. In its decision, the ERA says ‘P’ should have contacted his employers before stripping the bed, as the violation of privacy had a small part to play in the circumstances giving rise to the grievance. However it’s ruled he was both sexually harassed and unjustifiably dismissed. It says this clearly caused him to go into a downward spiral with his health, and he drank too much alcohol and eventually sought medical advice. He’s been awarded $5,000 compensation for the sexual harassment, $8,000 for being unjustifiably dismissed, plus $500 for lost wages. The ERA has also offered some advice to the woman who abused him, saying there is a fundamental disjunct between her admissions about what she said and did and her claim she is not homophobic. “If she truly means what she says, she would be well advised to not use language or behaviour of the sort she seems to concede she used to ‘P’.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 22nd January 2014 - 10:55am