Saleswoman whose colleagues placed bets on which of them would sleep with her first loses sex harassment claim and is asked to pay £7,500 costs

A saleswoman whose colleagues bet her on who would sleep with her first has been asked to pay the firm’s legal costs after losing her sexual harassment claim.

Shortly after joining East Anglia Home Improvements, Molly Craigie was stunned to discover male colleagues, including her boss, had placed bets on who would ‘sleep’ her.

He sued the firm, which described itself as ‘the UK’s number one home improvement provider’, but lost its case on technical grounds because it had made its claim too late.

Despite his dismissal, the judge found that placing bets on who would sleep with his female colleague amounted to harassment.

Miss Craigie won her claim for an unpaid holiday and East Anglia Home Improvements was ordered to pay her £4,775, but the business refused to give her the money.

But now the company has sought to recover its legal costs from Ms Craigie and demanded she pay them £7,500.

A court rejected East Anglia Home Improvements’ application for costs because it was too late; but the judge added that the application would have failed even if it had been filed in time.

Ms Craigie first joined the business in September 2022 in a role that required her to visit potential clients to confirm contracts, a court in Watford previously heard.

The saleswoman, who was in her early 20s at the time, claimed that within two months of starting the job she learned that two colleagues had ‘bet each other on who would sleep with me first’.

He told the court the bets about “who would go to bed with me first” began before he knew she was in a “long-term” and “committed” relationship.

East Anglia Home Improvements, a company that describes itself as ‘the UK’s number one home improvement provider’

Craigie, who was in her early twenties at the time, told the hearing she was ‘sexualised and ostracized’ simply because of her gender

She said the comment ‘stuck with her’ because it was the first time she felt like my colleagues, one of whom was a member of management, were sexualizing me and excluding me based on my gender.

The court also heard Ms Craigie was told she was hired because she would not ‘intimidate elderly customers’.

He left the job in June 2023 and took the company to court, alleging sexual harassment, among other allegations.

During the hearing, the company said Ms Craigie was a self-employed contractor and therefore the tribunal had ‘no jurisdiction to consider her claims’.

Labor Judge Rebecca Peer said there was no evidence that Ms Craigie “confronted anyone directly in relation to the bet or sought further information or even attempted to establish whether the information given by her was correct”. [her colleague] It was true.”

But he added: ‘I consider such a bet to be unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature.’

The judge concluded that the betting claim was “time barred”.

Complaints of sexual harassment were dismissed.

The business was ordered to pay Ms Craigie £4,775 in holiday pay. The court heard the money had still not been paid.

At the latest hearing, East Anglia Home Improvements applied for Ms Craigie to pay £7,500 to cover her legal costs in relation to the court claim.

Her legal representative told the court that Ms Craigie had ‘tried from the very beginning to manipulate the Court into hearing a fictitious case’.

The representative said Ms Craigie was ‘prejudiced’ because the business had decided not to pay the amount it was ordered to pay until the costs were ordered to be paid.

It was also alleged that he applied for anonymity in bad faith.