Harassed at work, she received 56,000 francs from her employer.

Her superiors did not react to the sexual messages, pornographic videos, and rumors she was subjected to. The courts ruled in her favor and convicted her employer.

An employee of a Valais-based bus company endured months of harassment without any intervention from her superiors. The cantonal court has severely punished her employer's inaction, ordering them to pay her 56,000 francs, according to the newspaper "Le Nouvelliste".

It all began in the fall of 2018. Hired a few weeks earlier as a tour guide, an employee received a sexually explicit message from a driver. Others followed: explicit remarks, proposals for a threesome, voicemails, and pornographic videos. She alerted her superiors, one of whom said he was "surprised and shocked." However, no action was taken.

The situation escalated into a full-blown smear campaign. Within the company, colleagues claimed she had slept with several drivers and clients or offered them sexual favors. Her attire, deemed "provocative" by some, also became a topic of discussion. During a meeting where she showed her superiors a new, particularly crude message, a manager reminded her that miniskirts were forbidden and that she shouldn't "distract the drivers."

The employee continues to denounce the behavior she is subjected to. In October 2019, after further comments about her makeup and nails, the human resources manager asked her to "re-evaluate herself" and "shut up." She then noticed that she was gradually excluded from certain deliveries, which impacted her income. After raising the possibility of psychological and sexual harassment, she was ultimately no longer assigned any deliveries until her dismissal in July 2020.

The case went to court six years later. The Cantonal Court largely sided with the former employee and delivered a particularly harsh judgment on her employer. The judge described a work environment marked by gender bias and "conducive to sexual harassment," as well as a corporate culture that tolerated sexist behavior and opinions.

The decision therefore penalizes not only the acts suffered by the victim, but also the company's inaction despite repeated warnings from its superiors. The employer will have to pay her 56,000 francs.