Monday, August 7

Student 'fired as waitress after refusing boss sex'

Hmmmmmmm


According to the scotsmen.com

A POLISH law student working as a waitress in Scotland has claimed she was sacked from her job after refusing to have sex with her employer.

Sylvia Wasilewska, 22, came to Edinburgh in June 2005 to try to find summer work to help pay for her course at Warsaw University. She told an employment tribunal that she took a job at Trattoria Siciliana restaurant in Union Street.


She said that on her second day at work, the owner of the restaurant, Salvatore Consoli, grabbed her by the face and told her he wanted to sleep with her.

She told the tribunal the harassment worsened, with Mr Consoli, 60, "constantly" pestering her. She said he even offered her money to sleep with him.

Ms Wasilewska told the hearing in Edinburgh that Mr Consoli's advances were so relentless she secretly taped his proposals as evidence for police.

And she claimed he fired her after she refused to join him in a threesome with another waitress, after Ms Wasilewska did not contradict him when he suggested she was a lesbian.

She said she had not denied it because she hoped it might "put him off" her.

At the tribunal yesterday Ms Wasilewska said Mr Consoli used "every possible pretext" to touch her bottom and rub against her.

She said she had initially been delighted to get the job. But on her second day Mr Consoli held her face and tried to kiss her, telling her, "I want to f*** you."

Ms Wasilewska said she was shocked and told Mr Consoli she did not want to sleep with him. But he refused to take no for an answer.

Ms Wasilewska has now launched the legal action against Mr Consoli, claiming that he sexually discriminated against her.

Ms Wasilewska claims she was frightened to go to the police because Mr Consoli forced her to work illegally without National Insurance.

Eventually she decided to do so. She said she wanted "strong evidence to take to the police" so she hid a tape recorder in her handbag when she accepted a lift home from Mr Consoli.

Ms Wasilewska finally left the job on 15 August, 2005.

Mr Consoli's solicitor, Christine McMenamin, said Ms Wasilewska had been sacked for behaving inappropriately with staff and customers, often asking them for their phone numbers.

Ms Wasilewska denied the claims. Mr Consoli denies all allegations made against him.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

why is POLISH in caps? POLISH, oh, yes, POLISH, oh, no, what's so special about being POLISH...?

8/15/2006 4:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you go to the Scotsman here: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm, you will note that the caps are consistent with the Scotsman's writing style. I take no offense. But I can see how offense might be taken, as North American's tend to talk about Polaks like the rest of the English speaking world talks about Irishmen. It's (usually) not meant to be seriously offensive, but reflects the stereotype prevalent in the relevant area. As I understand it, many 19th century Polish immigrants to North America were either labourers, or worked as labourers due to their lack of English. Hence, Polak tended to be associated in those countries with "uneducated peasants". Whereas in Australia, at least among the WW2 generation, Poles were respected as good soldiers and allies in the war. Nowadays, my generation of Poles is just another lot of young (or not so young) urban professionals.

Anyway, I'm sure there's a sociology doctorate in their somewhere.

8/15/2006 8:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Newspapers regularly capitalise the first two words in a story.

8/15/2006 8:41 AM  

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