From The Guardian.
Sex and the single grill
Sometimes a lonely, teenage grill
chef needs all the help he can get
By Emma Brockes
Wednesday January 27, 1999
A 17 year old boy has filed a complaint
against his employers, citing a "gross
lack of sexual harassment" in the
workplace.
The boy, "Y", who cannot be named for
legal reasons, is a grill chef at a motorway
service station between junctions 5 and 7
of the M1. He is demanding the right to
work in an environment in which sexual
innuendo and unsolicited groping by
female colleagues is strongly encouraged.
"I want to walk into work each day safe in
the knowledge that I may be felt up by a
member of the opposite sex," said Y from
his home in Daggenham last night.
"Everyone should have the same right to
sexual harassment, regardless of age,
sex or skin condition."
Y presented his employers with a report
documenting at least 22 instances in
which harassment did not occur in his
place of work.
In one instance, Y walked into the kitchen
and remarked upon "how hot it was" to a
20 year old waitress. She merely nodded
in response.
"She could have said, "It certainly is hot,
now that you're here," but she didn't even
look at me. Not once have I been made to
feel like a sexual object instead of a
co-worker."
Y said that although female colleagues
frequently used potentially loaded terms
like "breadstick" and "hand-tossed," it
was never in a sexually suggestive
manner.
On two occasions, a female manager
asked him to "work the late shift with me,"
but in both instances no sexual activity
occurred.
Y said he filed the formal complaint only
after all other attempts to remedy the
situation failed.
In May, after working more than 300 shifts
without a single sexual advance, he
authored and distributed a pamphlet to
female employees entitled Sexual
Harassment On The Job: A How-To
Guide.
Y suggested that the service station take
lessons from the more enlightened
harassment policies of its north-bound
service. "I hear the workers there are
always feeling each other up behind the
bread racks," he said.
If his employers fail to act, Y plans to take
his case to court.
"This humiliation is unacceptable and
cannot continue," he said. "I've been lifting
weights three times a week and haven't
had so much as an 'Alright duck?' from
the delivery drivers. Sexual harassment is
a right, not a privilege."
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