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A tribunal has upheld s-xual harassment and discrimination claims against an employer and its CEO, finding they also significantly delayed the proceedings and put the employee through "ongoing suffering".

Noting the employee was 22 years old when she worked for the employer, while the CEO was approximately 62 years old, Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Member Stuart Webb said: "The material, as put, asserts conduct by [the CEO] towards the [employee] of a predatory and grooming nature..."

The employee worked for Spanish Doughnuts Franchising between February and May 2022. In July 2023, she lodged an application alleging the CEO had breached section 93 of the State's Equal Opportunity Act, prohibiting workplace sexual harassment, in making unwanted sexual advances and/or engaging in conduct of a sexual nature towards her.

The CEO's actions also amounted to direct discrimination under section 18, she claimed, because they created "a workplace that was intimidating, hostile, degrading and offensive to women"...