Della Rosa Fresh Foods ordered to pay compensation after worker looked at colleague’s breasts: VCAT
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Pizza worker receives $53,000 in damages because a colleague looked at her breasts when talking to her
- A Melbourne woman has been awarded over $53,000 in damages
- Worker claimed an employee looked at her breasts, not her face in 2017
- The company, Della Rosa Fresh, is one of the largest pizzerias in Melbourne.
A pizza parlor worker was awarded more than $53,000 in damages from her former employer after she was sexually harassed when a male colleague looked at her breasts instead of her face when he spoke to her.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Court ruled on Monday that Della Rosa Fresh Foods, one of Melbourne’s largest suppliers of supermarket pizzas, pay compensation for injuries, losses and damages suffered by former employee Sudesh Kumari in 2017.
Tribunal Member Louise Johnson found that Ms. Kumari be awarded $38,000 in non-economic loss compensation with respect to Della Rosa’s violation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, and $15,241.00 for economic loss.
The company, which supplies pizza and baked goods to Coles, Woolworths and the IGA, was also ordered to pay a retirement loss totaling $1,091.27 to Ms Kumari.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Court ruled on Monday that Della Rosa Fresh Foods paid more than $53,000 in compensation to former employee Sudesh Kumari after a colleague looked at her breasts.
Former Della Rosa Fresh Food employee Sudesh Kumari in 2017 complained in 2017 that a male colleague looked at her breasts instead of her face when speaking to her.
Ms Kumari, who is of Indian descent and had previously worked in the bakery section of the Campbellfield company, stated that she had been subjected to sexual harassment, racial discrimination and victimization.
Ms. Johnson accepted Kumari’s evidence and rejected Della Rosa’s submission that any fine should not exceed $500.
“I believe that an award of $500 in damages would trivialize the alleged conduct,” Ms. Johnson said.
“I accept Ms Kumari’s evidence that she felt uncomfortable, objectified and demeaned.”
Ms. Kumari claimed that on August 11, 2017, a Della Rosa employee looked at her breasts instead of her face when she spoke to her.
“I felt like they didn’t respect me and this bothered me,” he said in 2019.
When she confronted the employee about it, she said he reacted angrily, leaving the woman scared and upset.
The Court accepted evidence from Ms Kumari that she felt “uncomfortable, objectified and demeaned” after the 2017 incident (file image pictured)
He reported the incident to his manager, who said he did not believe him.
They told him to take annual leave while the employee he complained about stayed in his regular job.
The company terminated Ms. Kumari on February 8, 2018.
In her January 7, 2018 complaint to the Fair Labor Commission, Ms. Kumari said that her manager told her that she did not like Indians.
In 2019, the court found that after Ms. Kumari filed the sexual harassment complaint, she was discriminated against due to her gender, unfavorable treatment and victimization.