An employer who did not protect waitresses from customer harassment will pay 130 thousand shekels

The court found that the owner of the establishment systematically made offensive and humiliating statements towards female employees, demanded that they appear at work in revealing clothing, and did nothing to protect them even in situations where customers allowed themselves to be physically harassed.

According to testimony, the club owner regularly commented on the appearance, body and sexuality of employees, including in the presence of other employees and customers, and demanded that they wear revealing clothing in order to attract customers and increase the establishment’s revenue.

The court found this requirement itself to be degrading to female workers based on their gender and rejected the owner’s argument that such statements were just “jokes.”

The court paid special attention to the owner’s response to complaints from waitresses about harassment from customers, including a case when one of the customers allowed himself to indecently touch one of the workers.

Instead of intervening to stop this behavior, the club owner reacted with disdain and simply reprimanded one of the employees who objected to this attitude.

The court noted that the owner was effectively linking the waitresses’ willingness to tolerate physical harassment from customers to the amount of tips and the establishment’s overall revenue.

The court found that there was a clear subordination relationship between the club owner, who acted as both owner and director, and the waitresses, and due to the imbalance of power, the workers were not required to prove that they directly objected to the harassment or demands made against them.

The court also noted that the club lacked basic mechanisms to prevent sexual harassment – the corresponding internal regulations were not adopted and a responsible person was not appointed to consider complaints, which is a violation of the employer’s obligations under the law.