A car firm boss who deliberately coughed in a female employee’s face during the pandemic has been forced to pay £26,000.
Kevin Davies- father of rugby star Gareth Davies- set out to ‘ridicule and intimidate’ the woman after mocking her health concerns in the days before lockdown, a tribunal heard.
The woman had asked her co-workers to social distance from her during the initial outbreak of Covid as she suffered from psoriatic arthritis and an autoimmune condition which made her vulnerable to the disease.
But Mr Davies instead responded by ‘coughing in her face deliberately and loudly, commenting that she was being ridiculous’.
The victim resigned from her role three months later and told the tribunal she was left a ‘nervous wreck’ by Mr Davies’ ‘horrendous’ conduct.
Employment judge Tobias Vincent Ryan said: ‘She resigned at least in part because she was victimised; this was a major and significant factor in her decision.
‘She felt that she was being eased out partly because of her complaints. She was correct.’
The hearing was told the woman had worked as a manager for Cawdor Cars between 2017 and 2020, earning £11-an-hour for her role at thel company, which has six branches across South and West Wales.
Judge Ryan found other members of the firm’s management team overheard the coughing incident, but said they came across ‘defensively and as not being wholly straightforward’ when asked to give evidence at the tribunal.
She said: ‘He knew of my medical condition. He knew I had no immune protection because of the medication I had to take, and he deliberately coughed in my face.
‘I was shaking. I’m not a silly, fluffy person – I’ve had to put up with a lot in my life – but it really got me.’
The judge ordered the woman receive a payout of £26,438.84 – with Cawdor Cars handing her £18,000 in damages for injury to feelings and Mr Davies paying £3,841.94 for unfair dismissal and £4,596.90 in interest accumulated.
Mr Davies’ rugby-star son, Gareth, is nicknamed Gareth Cawdor because of his connections to his father’s business.
He has 77 international caps for Wales and has twice toured with the British and Irish Lions.
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