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An employer was vicariously liable for a director's s-xual harassment of a "vulnerable" young trainee, the Federal Circuit Court has ruled, ordering them to pay her $125k.

"I accept that the sexual harassment was serious. There was a clear power imbalance," Judge Anastasis Liveris found.

In May 2023, the 20-year-old began a two-week employment trial with Heating & Cooling Australia, facilitated by disability employment service Max Employment. On her first day, she informed the director that she had obsessive compulsive disorder and "extremely bad anxiety".

The Court heard that on her fifth shift, the director began asking her highly intimate questions, including about her "sexual fantasies" and what she looked for in a boyfriend...