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In prioritising the "good of the organisation", a people and culture manager's response to an employee's sexual harassment complaint was "flawed", a tribunal has ruled.

However, the employee's victimisation claim has been rejected, with Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Senior Member Bernadette Steele finding her request for confidentiality wasn't ignored as "some kind of retaliation or punishment".

The case involved a Taskforce Community Agency supervisor. She claimed she was sexually harassed by the organisation's then-CEO at a work Christmas party in December 2022, and later victimised for complaining about it. The employer, she alleged, was vicariously liable for the conduct under the State's Equal Opportunity Act.

The employee told the Tribunal that the CEO: stood unusually close to her and looked her up and down; put his hand around her waist in a way that felt "quite intimate", while they posed for a photo; said words to the effect of, "you look really fit" and, "you wouldn't have a problem being hot"; and asked her for a hug when she was leaving, and said words to the effect that he felt lucky to be hugging her...