adminA TV presenter was sacked after she made a rude gesture on the air at colleagues who were taunting her with insults through her earpiece.
Charlie Vernon, 28, stuck up her middle finger — and a viewer complained.
What the viewer did not know, however, was that male colleagues had been trying to distract the presenter through her earpiece with a string of personal comments.
The banter became increasingly abusive. They called her a “****ing big whore” and “big bitch” while she was hosting the Jewellery Maker Show on Gems TV in May last year.
The former CBBC and GMTV presenter has now been awarded £3,250 after suing her former employers, the Redditch-based TV company Genuine Gemstone Company, which sacked her for bringing the firm into disrepute.
She lost a claim for unfair dismissal and victimisation at a Birmingham tribunal, but won her case for sexual harassment.
The presenter, who now works for Channel 5, told the tribunal she had tried to laugh off the distraction at first. “I was shocked and extremely offended to be called a ****ing big whore and a bitch on my earpiece,” she said.
“There’s always the odd distraction joke among the camera crews during transmission, but it’s usually innocent and friendly. I’ve never been insulted before by such crude language.”
Miss Vernon, from Bath, added: “I did my best to carry on with the show despite what was going on.”
The tribunal was shown a ten-minute film of the incident, in which Miss Vernon is seen laughing nervously before becoming angry.
She insisted that she had not realised her response had been seen by viewers. One mother complained to the show and said she and her 12-year-old daughter had been watching the programme and found the gesture “disgusting”.
Paul Roberts, representing the Genuine Gemstone Company, said Miss Vernon’s gesture could have brought the firm’s reputation into disrepute.
He also claimed the presenter had been threatened with losing her job two weeks before the incident.
After a two-day hearing, tribunal chairman Victoria Dean agreed that she had been sexually harassed.
She said calling a work colleague a “big whore” and a “bitch” was completely unacceptable.
However, she rejected Miss Vernon’s claim for unfair dismissal after declaring the TV firm had acted “within the range of reasonable responses”.
The claim for victimisation was also rejected by the chairman who described the situation as a “one-off.”
Miss Vernon declined to comment.
The Genuine Gemstone Company said: “This incident occurred between the two individuals and both were dismissed for their behaviour.”
What the viewer did not know, however, was that male colleagues had been trying to distract the presenter through her earpiece with a string of personal comments.
Online Reporter