Melbourne boss fired and fined $10k for slapping female employee ‘on the buttocks’

A Melbourne man has been fired and fined $10k after he slapped a much younger staff member’s bottom as part of an excruciating exchange.

A Melbourne boss has been ordered to pay $10,000 because he slapped a female staffer “on the buttocks” three times in a blatant instance of workplace sexual harassment.

Billy Chung, a production manager at children’s wear retail company Gumboots Australia Pty Ltd, made unwanted sexual advances towards a 35-year-old female subordinate during her short six-month stint working there from August 2019 to January 2020.

The married woman claimed Mr Chung slapped her on the bottom on three occasions, put his arm around her shoulders, tickled her waist, massaged her while at her desk and even said “Your bottom [is] so skinny”.

Although he was sacked “on the spot” after she raised her concerns, the woman left soon after because she found the environment “complicated” and “uncomfortable”.

Within a month of his initial sacking and her subsequent resignation from the company, Mr Chung was rehired.

In a decision released several weeks ago, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) upheld nearly all of the woman’s claims by finding that the man had behaved inappropriately and ordered he pay her $10,000 in damages.

The VCAT was forced to drop their case against Gumboots because the company went bust in 2020.

Billy Chung. Picture: LinkedIn

Twice, first in September and then October 2019, the woman stood next to the desk of her boss Mr Chung and he reached over and slapped her buttocks.

“She said that she was shocked as she had never experienced this previously,” the VCAT decision stated.

On the third occasion, Mr Chung and the woman were discussing shipping containers when he hit her on the bottom.

“As I was looking through the window next to him, he suddenly slapped my buttocks,” the woman said.

The next month, in November, she was left “very embarrassed” after a bizarre exchange with Mr Chung.

He told her: “Why is your upper body so big but your bottom so skinny – your bottom has no meat!” to which she replied “I don’t know why”.

VCAT senior member Susan Burdon-Smith concluded that the buttocks slapping and comments around the woman’s buttocks constituted sexual harassment.

“The applicant is considerably younger than the respondent, and in a junior role to him … She was in a vulnerable position,” she said in her findings.

“A slap on the buttocks is generally accepted as an act of physical intimacy and satisfies the definition of sexual conduct.”

The tribunal found that Mr Chung had slapped his subordinate ‘on the buttocks’ three times. Picture: Getty Images

In January 2020, the woman claimed she was again sexually harassed while walking downstairs with Mr Chung.

She recalled at the tribunal that he “put his arm around my neck and tried to pull me towards him. I quickly pulled away and out of his grip …

“As he was leaving the office he tickled my waist with his hand. I reacted by forcing a laugh.”

Mr Chung claimed he had touched her shoulder because he had “overbalanced” but the woman denied this suggestion.

The very next day, she said the situation got more awkward when he tried to massage her.

In the tribunal documents, the victim described how her boss said, “Oh you’re very tense, are you stressed all the time? That’s why your shoulder’s very tight, I’ll give you a massage” and that she declined his request.

Mr Chung defended himself by saying she had asked him if he knew of any good masseuses.

“The nature of the relationship and the escalating level of intimacy leads me to the conclusion that this massage occurred in circumstances where it was both of a sexual nature and unwelcome,” VCAT member Ms Burdon-Smith concluded.

The victim also claimed Mr Chung had touched her left breast while running his hands down a tote bag she had slung over her shoulder, however Ms Burdon-Smith rejected this allegation.

Claim for $110,000 in damages rejected

“She had tried to maintain a friendly relationship with the respondent [Mr Chung] as he was her manager and she had to work with him but eventually his behaviour became too much for her to bear,” the VCAT tribunal stated.

The victim made a WorkCover application on 9 January 2020 and then reported the incident to the police two weeks later.

On the same day she made her WorkCover application, she also visited a GP who provided a certificate showing she was unfit to work.

Then on January 10, she reported the incident, to the company, causing Mr Chung to be promptly fired. However, after being asked by co-workers why the production manager had left, she felt uncomfortable and decided to quit.

Soon after, he was brought back into the company.

Eventually, the woman took the case to the tribunal and was seeking $110,000 in “high end damages” – $52,596.15 in lost wages, $454.80 in out-of-pocket medical expenses, and $20,000.00 in aggravated damages.

However, Ms Burdon-Smith found she was only entitled to $10,000.

Originally published as Melbourne boss fired and fined $10k for slapping female employee ‘on the buttocks’