Fousilla Laloui Wiki
Fousilla Laloui Biography
Who is Fousilla Laloui ?
A sales manager for a London-based candle company has lost a s*xual harassment case after her boss referred to female staff at a drink at work as “my harem”.
Fousilla Laloui told an employment tribunal that the chief operating officer, Richard Symons, was the only man present when she made the comment.
She claimed that this was one of several incidents of s*xual harassment, discrimination and victimization that she experienced while working at luxury scented candle specialist Parks Ltd.
Ms. Laloui, who was also suing for wrongful termination, had all of her claims rejected by the panel.
They ruled that the harem comment was just ‘a throwaway line’, not intended to offend anyone and some of the women present found it ‘funny’.
Employment judge Stephen Heath said that while the term “clearly relates to s*x” and “has the distinctive potential to offend”, it “does not violate their dignity”.
The central London court heard that Ms Laloui, who is French, was hired in 2017 as part of a company revamp to lead her London sales team.
Parks sells candles, diffusers and other home fragrance products.
He worked in sales and marketing for more than 20 years and managed sales, marketing and design teams for the national and international market.
In 2018, Ms. Laloui attended a trade show along with Mr. Symons and several other staff members.
While traveling to the event on the Eurostar, Laloui says she was asked to change seats, which alienated her from Mr. Symons and business director Jeremy Taylor.
He claimed they discussed sales and left her out of the conversation in a “deliberate ruse” because she was a woman.
Mr. Symons admitted to joking on this trip that the female staff were a ‘harem’ because he was the only male present for drinks one night.
Another colleague who was present, Alison Thompson, described the comment as “off the cuff” and said she was not offended.
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She told the court that other people there ‘laughed and moved on’ and it was never mentioned again.
Judge Heath concluded: “We found that Mr Symons responded to a remark that he was the only male in a group of colleagues having a pre-dinner drink in a hotel bar.”
‘The meaning of ‘harem’ is the part of a house reserved for wives and concubines.
“In different contexts, we can certainly see a wide margin for this type of comment to amount to harassment.
‘We found out that this was a throwaway line from someone who didn’t mean to offend. Some women in the group actually found it funny.
‘We found that no one really expressed being offended at the time. This isn’t to say that they weren’t, as people often let off-color comments go by without complaint.
‘This is perhaps even more likely when the comment is made by someone with power in a relationship. We are prepared to discover that the comment was unwanted by (Ms. Laloui).
“Taking into account the authorities, we conclude that the comment did not violate the claimant’s dignity or create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
“We did not find that (Ms. Laloui) was treated less favorably because of her s*x, or that it was harassment related to s*x.”
The central London court also heard that, in May 2020, a number of positions the company became at risk of redundancy, including the job of Ms Laloui.
Two months later, there was a dispute over the value of her position compared to others in the company regarding redundancy and Mr. Symons asked her to say what alternative positions she would like to be considered for at the company.
She responded via email, citing her level of experience and saying the company had failed in her duty to find her a position.
Source: https://wikisoon.com/
