Cleaner wins £28,000 after suffering sexual harassment by CCTV

A FEMALE worker at a tourist attraction who was stalked on CCTV by a security guard has won her case for sexual discrimination.

Dora Alves was spied on by James Tuff while employed at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh in December 2007. Tuff used cameras to watch the 26-year-old and then radioed her with lewd comments.

He told her on one occasion to “shake your bum” while she carried out cleaning duties. The middle-aged security guard later sexually assaulted Miss Alves which saw him charged and fined £500 at court.

Portuguese Miss Alves took Dynamic Earth to an employment tribunal in Edinburgh claiming they had failed to deal with her complaint properly.

A panel ruled she was sexually harassed and ordered her former employers to pay £27,750 in compensation. Tuff has also been told to pay £1,000.

The hearing was earlier told Tuff had used the CCTV to track Miss Alves as she did her cleaning job. She said: “At first it was just the odd comment about my body – he would say things about me having a real woman’s body compared to Scottish women. He would appear out of nowhere when I was cleaning in the toilets.

“I would turn around and knock into him at the door. Other times when I cleaned. I would often have to kneel or bend down to hoover under tables and suddenly he would be there. The only way he could know where I was would be to follow me on the cameras.”

Tuff also took a photograph of her on his mobile phone from a CCTV image. Miss Alves told her supervisor about this, but he took no action. She also told the tribunal that she would listen to music during night shifts, adding: “I was dancing around one time and he came on the radio saying he liked how I shook my bum and told me to move my body more. I realised he was watching me and I was terrified.”

Miss Alves said the final straw was in November 2008 when Tuff once came out of his office and grabbed her from behind. She added: “I can still feel it now – exactly what he did to me. He put one hand on my chest and used the other to pull him towards me.”

Tuff was convicted at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last year, placed on the sex offenders list for three years and resigned from his job.

Employment Judge Stewart Watt said: “The tribunal had no doubt at all that there had been continual sexual harassment by Mr Tuff of the claimant culminating in the sexual assault. The tribunal considered the claimant a truthful and honest witness.”

Miss Alves claimed at the tribunal her former employers knew she was being harassed, but took no action. She also said bosses also failed to act properly after she reported the sexual assault. In a statement given to Dynamic Earth at the time of the assault, Tuff said: “I think this is a ploy by Miss Alves to get rich quick in soft Britain.”