Team leader told male colleague ‘I want to squeeze those buns so bad’

A female team leader at a factory was sacked after telling a younger male colleague ‘I want to squeeze those buns so bad’, a tribunal heard.

Julie Taylor is said to have made the inappropriate comment about the male factory worker as he bent over at work while she stood behind him ‘watching’.

The senior employee also pinched younger men at work on their behinds and grabbed their ‘private parts’, a panel heard.

She made ‘dirty rude comments’, quizzed men on whether they were married, and on one occasion told a colleague that it was such a ‘pity you are not single’ in front of his wife.

Following an investigation into Taylor’s behaviour, the middle-aged worker was fired by Stanley Black & Decker for gross misconduct.

She tried to sue the manufacturing company for unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal, but the tribunal in Cambridge has thrown out her case.

The hearing was told colleagues were left ‘uncomfortable’ by Taylor but didn’t want to speak out because she was older and ‘sometimes older people thought they could get away with things’.

The tribunal heard on November 3, 2021, Daniel Gardos told a colleague, Daniel Lindley, that Taylor had approached him while he was sitting in a warehouse truck talking to another colleague and had ‘grabbed him in a private area’.

Mr Gardos said in a statement to HR: ‘On October 27 I was in aisle L asking a colleague a couple of questions and then I saw team leader Julie walking down towards us.

‘She approached me and made a joke, in the middle of doing it she reached into my truck area and grabbed me inappropriately on my private area, without permission.

‘This incident made me feel very uncomfortable.’

After the complaint, Taylor was suspended and an internal investigation was launched.

Mr Lindley told the investigator that Ms Taylor made ‘dirty rude comments’ and ‘made comments and touched him’ too when he first started but because he was new, he didn’t feel he could speak out.

Another worker, Victor Purtulis, also said Ms Taylor inappropriately touched him.

A tribunal report said: ‘He stated that on one occasion, as he was about to put a pallet up on the racking, Ms Taylor put her hand on his leg and swiped her hand down his thigh.

‘On another occasion he was bending over and felt someone watching, and when he turned around she was standing there and had said ‘I want to squeeze those buns so bad’.

‘He hadn’t said anything to her because she was older than him and sometimes older people thought they could get away with things.’

Warehouse worker Terence Brown also encountered the same experience.

The report said: ‘[Mr Brown] said he had had a couple of experiences with Ms Taylor but he had just brushed them off.

‘She had come behind him as he was wrapping a pallet and ‘grabbed his bum’. He gave her a dirty look and she didn’t do it again.

‘When he had first started she had pointed out he was wearing a ring and said, ‘you’re married then’.’

Another male colleague said Ms Taylor made comments in front of his wife such as ‘why are you [married], such a pity, shame you are not single’ which had upset his wife.

Two others were interviewed and claimed similar incidents had happened to them.

In a disciplinary hearing in December, Taylor denied all the allegations but even after an appeal, she was fired for gross misconduct.

Employment Judge Sarah Moore said: ‘In the light of all the above I am satisfied the [company] had genuine and reasonable grounds for its belief [Taylor] had touched [the male workers] in a sexually inappropriate way and that it arrived at that conclusion having carried out as much investigation into the matter as was reasonable in the circumstances.

‘I find it more likely than not that the instances of sexually inappropriate touching happened as alleged.

‘Sexually inappropriate touching at work constitutes gross misconduct and a repudiatory breach of contract which [the company] was entitled to accept by summary dismissal.’