posted by Carmel Murphy on Apr 1

On this April Fools’ Day it is worth pointing to employers what the potential cost of practical jokes and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace can be!   Back in 1995, the Chevron Corporation in the US paid out $2.2 million to 4 female employees who had objected to offensive jokes and sexist emails being circulated, such as one that claimed 25 reasons why beer was better than women !  And closer to home more recently, a Dublin taxi firm was ordered to pay 2 years salary to a female driver who had laxative tablets placed in the kettle at work and offensive comments written about her sexuality, whilst a technology company in Dundalk was ordered to pay €5,000 to a worker as they did not deal properly with a complaint about racist grafitti written in the toilets about him.  Read the rest of this entry »