A small business offering shoe and leather repair, key cutting and engraving services in Perth has been ordered to pay a former employee $6,200 in damages for discrimination on the ground of sex. This follows two earlier Federal Magistrates Court and SA IR Court decisions to award the same employee over $35,000 in compensation and penalties.

The employee was dismissed shortly after lodging an underpayment claim, for which she was awarded $7,000 plus $650 interest.

The employee was the sole female employee at the business and specialised in repairing leather goods. She claimed to have been treated less favourably than the other male employees, including no overtime pay. When the issue was raised, her employer responded by advising her to “Put on a smiley face and get on with it.”

In the Equal Opportunity Tribunal, the employer was accused of denying overtime despite repeated requests, s well as exclusion from after-work social activities arranged by the business owner. It was also claimed that the employer and other male employees repeatedly referred to her as the “Stitching Lady”, refusing to train her in new skills, such as engraving, despite the same opportunities being freely offered to male employees.

The tribunal full bench - Judge Sue Cole and Members Helena Jasinski and Anne Bachmann - found that the employer discriminated against the employee on the ground of sex in breach of section 30 of the Equal Opportunity Act. 

It found that the business had "wrongly attributed certain characteristics to the employee because she was female, and then behaved towards her accordingly". 

The full bench awarded the employee $6,200 in damages for lost opportunity for extra hours, overtime, and skills improvement, and damage to her feelings, which it said was "genuine and heartfelt".