Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Munchkins Restaurant Ltd and another v Karmazyn, liability of employers for long-term harassment
| Author | Sam Middlemiss |
| Date | 01 September 2011 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1358229111420517 |
| Published date | 01 September 2011 |
Follow the Yellow
Brick Road: Munchkins
Restaurant Ltd and
another v Karmazyn,
liability of employers for
long-term harassment
Sam Middlemiss
Abstract
Harassment, even of a verbal nature, can pollute the working environment and can
destroy the health, confidence and the self-esteem of the victim. Of course, it is up to the
claimants in these verbal harassment cases to establish that the behaviour of the
employer is unwelcome and unsolicited and that it is offensive to them personally. It
is this latter requirement that has caused most difficulty for claimants in these cases. This
aspect of obtaining protection against long-standing harassment will be discussed in this
article in light of a new decision that considerably broadens the legal protection for vic-
tims of harassment.
Keywords
Legal, liabilty, employers, long-term, verbal, harassment
Introduction
In Munchkins Restaurant Ltd and another v Karmazyn
1
the claimants were waitresses
who had alleged they had been subjected to persistent unwanted sexual conduct for up
to five years by the controlling shareholder of the restaurant in which they worked. This
included his: inappropriate conversation of a sexual nature on an almost daily basis;
Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK
Corresponding Author:
Email: s.middlemiss@rgu.ac.uk
International Journalof
Discrimination and theLaw
11(3) 140–149
ªThe Author(s) 2011
Reprints and permission:
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DOI: 10.1177/1358229111420517
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