Perth office worker sacked for discussing adventurous sex life loses unfair dismissal case

A. perth An office worker who was fired for looking badly at female colleagues and describing his polyamorous sex life with his “furry” wife has had his unfair dismissal claim rejected.

Office management worker Evan-Ashley Solace was fired after three female colleagues complained that he not only sexually harassed them, but also went to the bathroom with the door open, farted and burped, exposed the office to their smelly feet, and watched anime at his desk.

Mr Solace, a Live Action Role Playing enthusiast, took his employer, laboratory machine manufacturer Mettler-Toledo, to the Fair Work Commission, claiming the allegations were false and not investigated fairly by the employer.

Earlier this month the Fair Work Commission published its decision finding that Mr Solace’s dismissal was valid because he sexually harassed women and displayed an offensive attitude.

The case centered around allegations from three women who worked closely with Mr Solace in the multinational’s Perth office.

The women claimed Mr Solace would “bait” women in the office to ask questions about his sex life and then discuss the polyamorous lifestyle he had with his wife.

During the two-day hearing, a woman testified: “Mr. Solace would often discuss details of his sex life with his wife, including that she was a furry woman who liked to wear animal clothing or fur skins.”

He also said he told him he would “make up his own costumes to wear at his wife’s orgies.”

All three women testified that Mr. Solace would use the urinal in the men’s room with the door open, “in full view of the staff area and the main path to the kitchen.”

One woman said she chose to resign because Mr. Solace “made her feel insecure and constantly on edge.”

All three women complained that Mr. Solace farted regularly; One woman said she farts regularly as she walks past her desk.

Another complaint was that the man walked around the office barefoot and his feet “smelled strongly”; One woman said she could smell it from her desk.

“When any of her male co-workers entered the office, she would put her shoes back on,” the woman said.

In March, one of the women sent an email to Mettler-Toledo’s national service manager outlining her complaints, including that she “spent most of her workday watching anime.”

An investigation was launched and Mr Solace was asked to attend a meeting with the company’s senior executives and its human resources manager.

At the meeting, Mr Solace denied the allegations, saying the women “colluded to make the complaint”.

“Mr. Solace denied talking about his sex life at work, leaving the toilet door open while using the restroom, or discussing a colleague’s salary without permission. Mr. Solace explained that he would occasionally use the women’s restroom when the men’s restroom was occupied,” the decision read.

“Mr. Solace acknowledged that he would burp and fart at his desk, but it was not excessive.”

Mettler-Toledo hired an outside law firm to investigate the allegations and terminated her employment in May.

Fair Work Commissioner Pearl Lim ruled that Mr Solace had sexually harassed and engaged in offensive behavior towards women in the workplace. Although Mettler-Toledo’s investigation was “dubious,” it ruled that the termination was valid.

“I accept that Mr. Solace talked about how he would switch partners with his wife at work, that he and his wife attended orgies, how his wife prepared costumes for sexual encounters, details of his vasectomy surgery, details of his wife’s tubal ligation and how this related to their sexual life, and showed scratches on his arms from an orgy.

“There’s nothing wrong with being sex positive. But there is a time and place to discuss your sexual life, and the workplace is often neither, unless there is positive evidence that this is acceptable,” she wrote.

Mr Solace told The West Australian the decision caused him to change his behaviour.

“I’ve basically shut myself out, I don’t talk about personal stuff anymore,” he said.

“You spend a lot of time together at work, eight hours a day in the office, of course you talk about a lot of things,” he said.