An employment tribunal in England ruled on Friday that calling a man "bald" in the workplace constitutes sexual harassment.
The three-member tribunal, led by Judge Jonathan Brain, had to determine whether a reference to someone’s lack of hair was simply an insult or amounted to harassment, reports an Indian News agency PTI.
The decision relates to a claim of unfair dismissal and sex discrimination brought by Tony Finn against the West Yorkshire-based British Bung Company, where he worked as an electrician for 24 years before he was fired in May last year.
“In our judgment, there is a connection between the word ‘bald’ on the one hand and the protected characteristic of sex on the other,” the judgment said.
The tribunal accepted that the lawyer appearing on behalf of the company, British Bung Manufacturing Company Limited, was right to submit that women, as well as men, maybe bald.
“However, as all three members of the tribunal will vouchsafe, baldness is much more prevalent in men than women. We find it to be inherently related to sex,” the judgment notes.
The case was heard at Sheffield in northern England over February and April this year.
A future date will be set to determine Finn’s compensation after his claims of sexual harassment, unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal were upheld earlier this week.
