Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) will now have to pay Sh 1.7 Million to a former employee who resigned after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against her supervisor.

Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge Linnet Ndolo ruled that the employee’s complaint was ignored at every turn and in the end she was turned into a villain and forced out of employment.

The woman Identified as M.E had sued the bank claiming she resigned due to pressure from her bosses after she reported her immediate supervisor for sexual harassment.

Through lawyer Paul Macharia Muchiri, the woman who was a teller at the bank claimed she was employed at the bank in 2009 and at the time of leaving her employment she earned Sh 133,000 per month.

She claimed that her supervisor caressed and touched her thighs, uttered emotionally offensive and suggestive words, demanded sex from her, humiliated her with his advances and subjected her to internal memos.

She revealed to the court that the cash manager who was her immediate boss used to call and text her outside working hours with threats that she either gives in to his sexual demands or he gets his way with her.

It was her case that she suffered social stress occasioned by acts of the bank officers including sexual harassment by her supervisor, bullying and coercion which caused her to write a one sentence letter in May 2019 intimating her intention to resign.

The bank however in response claimed she voluntarily resigned from her position and they accepted it thereby declining her decision to rescind the resignation.

The bank denied the sexual harassment claims saying it was only a diversionary tactic to avoid culpability for her act of insubordination.

Justice Ndolo however in her judgment noted she had evaluated the actions taken by the bank with regards to her case and reached the unavoidable conclusion that there was a well calculated move by the bank officials to obscure her complaint of sexual harassment

“Therefore, I have no difficulty in reaching the conclusion that her resignation was not voluntary. What is more even after she changed her mind and sought to recall the resignation, the bank shut that door as well,” the judge ruled.

“I find and hold that the claimant has proved a case of constructive dismissal as defined in law,” she ruled.

The judge awarded her 12 months salary compensation taking into account her length of service and how the bank mishandled her sexual harassment complaint by failing to investigate her supervisor who was accused of sexually harassing her.

The court also dismissed the bank’s counterclaim and also the supervisor’s case where he sought for the woman to be ordered to publish apology for wrongly accusing him.