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Telstra sex romp woman back on the job

Wins bath rumpy-pumpy unfair dismissal case

A female Telstra employee who was sacked for having sex in a bath with two male colleagues while "embarassed women co-workers cringed just metres away" has won compensation and her job back, The Australian reports.

Carlie Streeter - from the company's retail outlet at Westfield Shopping Town in Miranda, Sydney - indulged in the aquatic rumpy-pumpy following a "belated Christmas party" on 25 February, organised by Testra employee Daniela Hyett.

The festivities kicked off at a nearby pub before moving onto a restaurant and eventually to the Rydges hotel, where four staff were booked into one room for the night. Three of Streeter's female colleagues, including Hyett, hit the sack at around 1am, but were quickly awoken by the arrival of "two male employees and a former Miranda employee" (presumably Streeter), who promptly "got in the bath together".

Streeter then came into the room, apparently "very drunk", as a witness explained to the Industrial Relations Commission hearing. The shocked trio went back to sleep, but one was shortly thereafter awoken again to find Streeter getting her end away with fellow shop employee Aakash Sharma.

Hyett testified she subsequently got up to use the loo, but found the bathroom door locked. When Streeter let her in, she discovered Sharma naked in the bath with store manager Steve Hatzistergos. Streeter then hopped back into the tub, leaving Hyett to take a public leak. She decribed herself as "very embarrassed" and suffering from "stage fright" as the three revellers were watching.

Telstra subsequently investigated the incident, and sacked Streeter for reasons "including that she sexually harassed the female employees by having sex in the room and being in the bath with the two males, and failing to treat Ms Hyett with respect by being present while she urinated".

However, the Commission last Friday decided Streeter had been "unjustly sacked". It ruled that "while the employees were upset by Ms Streeter's conduct, the commission found it was not enough to constitute sexual harassment".

Specifically, the Commission found: "The sexual conduct took place in a hotel room, with the lights out, in the early hours of the morning, when Ms Streeter thought the other employees were asleep...Most of the conduct occurred well away from the workplace, after rather than during a work function, and in a hotel room that was booked and paid for privately."

The Commission duly ordered Telstra to "re-employ Ms Streeter at another retail outlet and pay compensation equal to any remuneration lost as a result of her sacking". ®

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