29 September,2010 01:57 PM IST | | Agencies
A woman in Britain has sued her ex-boss for sexual harassment, sexual discrimination and victimisation after he called her a 'sexy nurse' and told her to call him when she had a shower.
Debbie Smith, 49, who was earning 90,000 pounds a year, was forced out of her job after her millionaire boss, Tim Watts, 61, subjected her to a stream of 'degrading and offensive' comments.
The mother of three, who was the managing director of a newly created subsidiary of Pertemps, a recruitment firm, revealed that Watts even referred to the size of a colleague's breasts on her first day.
She said that Watts, who is the chairman of the firm and whose personal fortune is thought to exceed 35 million pounds, singled her out because she was female.
Smith, from Sutton Coldfield, told a Birmingham employment tribunal that the comments started on her first day in September 2008.
"I said that I had known a fellow Pertemps employee at school. He said to me: Were her breasts as big as that at school?" the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.
"I was shocked and taken aback. I didn't say anything as I didn't want to be seen to be making trouble on my first day," she said.
Smith, who is claiming for loss of earnings, loss of pension contributions and injured feelings, said she was forced out of her job after filing a grievance against Watts.
The married businesswoman, who left the company after a year, said she did not report to Watts and met him only a few times, but he constantly made 'degrading comments'.
"It seemed that on every occasion (that we met) he took the opportunity to comment inappropriately," she said.
"He once asked me to phone him before going for a shower, which I thought was wholly inappropriate.
"Mr Watts told me I looked like a sexy nurse. These were sexual comments that were degrading, humiliating and offensive.
"Those comments would not have been made if I was male," she stated.
