This month an ASDA worker has won a sex discrimination case after a colleague kneed him in the bum!

Choon Seng Goh argued that he felt humiliated after an unprovoked kneeing, the second in the assaults he had suffered. Having waved off the first incident of being kicked in the same area as being slightly more than friendly banter, he reported it to his manager.

Several months go by without an investigation, before finally determining that there was no case to answer. Unhappy with this result, a claim was brought in the Employment Tribunal. The argument was that had a man been accused of this conduct by a woman, the investigation would have been taken far more seriously and the colleague would have been dismissed. The tribunal, in awarding compensation, seemed to agree. Ruling that ASDA’s investigation was ‘mismanaged’, the tribunal stated that Mr Goh was ‘entitled to feel that his welfare and safety were not being accorded any significance by his employer’.

Despite a very flimsy accusation by the female colleague of sexual harassment, which was dismissed as being untrue, she also tried to downplay the incidents as something that regularly occurred between them.

The next time someone suggests kicking someone up the backside, maybe don’t take it too literally? Or is it me that’s out of touch with modern banter?..