Calling men bald is sexual harassment, court rules

In a ruling made by a three-judge bench in Britain, calling a man bald is tantamount to sexual harassment.

According to the three judges, calling a man bald in the workplace would be comparable to commenting on the size of a woman’s breast.

The ruling comes after a British manufacturing firm fired Tony Finn, an electrician who had worked for the organisation for 24 years.

According to Finn one of his former supervisors, Jamie King, ‘crossed the line’ by making unnecessary comments about his appearance.

King is said to have called Finn ‘bald’ following an altercation that says the electrician to lose his job.

Finn further took the case to a tribunal which ruled in his favour indicating that the baldness remark was an insult or can be classified as harassment.

“We have little doubt that being referred to in this pejorative manner was unwanted conduct as far as [Finn] was concerned.

This is strong language. In our judgment King crossed the line by making remarks personal to the claimant about his appearance,” the tribunal found according to the Telegraph.

“It is difficult to conclude other than that King uttered those words with the purpose of violating [Finn’s] dignity and creating an intimidating hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for him.”

The tribunal compared the case to a previous case of sexual assault where a man was charged with sexual assault after being guilty of commenting on the size of a woman’s breast.

“It is much more likely that a person on the receiving end of a comment such as that which was made in [that] case would be female.

So too, it is much more likely that a person on the receiving end of a remark such as that made by King would be male,” said the Tribunal.

Following the decision, Finn will get compensated for wrongful and unfair dismissal and sexual harassment. His compensation will be determined at a later date.