Chef awarded £80k after boss sang him suggestive Victoria Wood song

A head chef has won almost £80,000 in compensation after his boss sexually harassed him by singing a Victoria Wood song to him in a suggestive way.

Andrew Wilson serenaded Sam Nunns with the comedian’s Ballad of Barry and Freda and made a series of “disconcerting gestures” as he emphasised the lyric “let’s do it”.

Mr Nunns complained that Mr Wilson, the manager at the Windermere Manor Hotel, in Cumbria, “attempted eye contact” while gesticulating and singing the song, which tells of a woman propositioning her introverted husband for sex.

Wood’s song features lyrics such as: “Let’s do it, let’s do it, do it while the mood is right/ I’m feeling appealing, I’ve really got an appetite/I’m on fire, with desire, I could handle half the tenors in a Male Voice Choir/Let’s do it, let’s do it tonight.”

The chef told an employment tribunal Mr Wilson had repeatedly touched his thigh and bottom and lingered while hugging him as he worked at the £170-a-night hotel.

He said that on other occasions Mr Wilson, who was the general manager, referred to a cucumber and asked him ‘do you need some time alone dear” and “I’ll put olive oil on the orders list again”.

Faked an orgasm

Around the same time, he faked an orgasm when eating the chef’s food, and then hugged and “mildly dramatised dry-humping” him.

Following a “string of assaults” at the 1850s hotel, Mr Nunns decided to resign and sue.

Although the tribunal ruled that several of these incidents did not constitute harassment, an employment judge said the song had “violated his dignity” and was humiliating.

As a result, it amounted to unwanted sexual conduct, along with repeated touching, massaging his shoulders, and saying he loved him.

Mr Nunns has been awarded compensation of £79,119.

The tribunal, held in Manchester, heard Mr Nunns was excited when he landed his first head chef role at the hotel in the Lake District in October 2021.

The Ballad of Barry and Freda incident happened in January 2022.

Mr Nunns said: “He repeatedly attempted to make eye contact with [me] and made disconcerting gestures towards [me], particularly when singing the repeated words, ‘let’s do it’.

Mr Wilson admitted he sang the song, but said this was only because the comedian had come up in conversation and Mr Nunns hadn’t heard it.

Additionally, the tribunal found the manager and chef would often hug, but after an incident in which Mr Wilson had touched Mr Nunns’ bottom in November 2021, he became uncomfortable with the embraces, especially as he said they became longer.

Other incidents were said to have happened at the hotel – which is owned by Starboard Hotels – but were not found to be harassment.

Forced to resign

After filing a grievance, Mr Nunns felt he had been “continuously treated unacceptably” and felt forced to resign in July 2022.

Ruling that Mr Nunns had been sexually harassed, employment judge Phil Allen said: “Someone singing a song in a work environment would not normally amount to unlawful harassment. In another context, the singing of a particular song would not have amounted to harassment.

“The song which is the subject of the allegation is about someone propositioning someone else for sex.

“The tribunal accepted that the song was sung in the way evidenced by [Mr Nunns], with particular emphasis being placed upon the words repeated regularly throughout the song of ‘let’s do it’ and those words being accompanied by eye contact and disconcerting gestures towards the [him].

”[Mr Wilson] singing the song and singing it in the way which it has been found he did, was considered in the context of the other harassment which the tribunal found had occurred.

“The tribunal accepted that the song, and what was emphasised in it, took on a very different tone in the light of the events which the Tribunal found had occurred.

“It was clear from [Mr Nunns] evidence that the song being sung to him in that way with the relevant emphasis had the effect of violating the claimant’s dignity and creating a degrading, humiliating and offensive environment for him.”