NHS staff member who 'inappropriately touched a patient’s bottom' awarded £1,400

A health care assistant has been awarded more than £1,400 for experiencing harassment at work, but a tribunal found she did touch a patient’s bottom inappropriately.

Ilda Esteves, 61, was employed as a Bank Band 2 Health Care Assistant (HCA), from September 2022.

She was working for the West London NHS Trust.

She had made five claims including victimisation and unlawful deduction of wages, however an employment tribunal only upheld claims of age and sex based harassment.

The claims came from her Team Leader, Charles Oppong, repeatedly calling Mrs Esteves “auntie”, despite her specific and repeated requests to be referred to by her name.

The tribunal accepted that “auntie” is considered a term of respect in Ghanaian culture (Mr Oppong’s heritage), however ruled that he should not have made such comments as her superior.

Mr Oppong also made numerous comments that she would be a “good match” for an older colleague named George.

The tribunal ruled that his conduct was an offensive attempt at humour that created a hostile and offensive work environment for Mrs Esteves.

The financial remedy was limited to compensation for “injury to feelings”.

Taking into account that the harassment only involved one person and lasted only two months, the tribunal placed her at the bottom of the lower band for compensation – she was awarded £1,425.15.

At the outset of the hearing, Mrs Esteves requested an anonymity order because of an allegation that she touched a patient’s bottom.

This request was denied because they found the email containing the allegation to be “accurate and true”, though it was never suggested there was anything sexual involved and it may have been inadvertent, though still inappropriate, according to the tribunal report.

Mrs Esteves had claimed Mrs Elspeth Jefferson, circulated a “false and misleading” email regarding a church outing involving a patient.

In the email, Mrs Jefferson claimed that Mrs Esteves had stayed out beyond her authorised time, failed to get a patient’s consent before a bag search, and inappropriately touched a patient’s bottom.

The tribunal found Mrs Jefferson to be an “utterly credible” witness, ruling that the events described in the email were true and her motive was purely to support Mrs Esteves and protect her from patient complaints.

Her claim against Mrs Jefferson was thus dismissed.

Claims of direct discrimination on the basis of age, race and sex were dismissed, alongside harassment on the basis of race.

Claims of detriment for whistleblowing, victimisation and unlawful deduction of wages were also dismissed.

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A West London NHS spokesperson said: “We are proud of our diverse workforce, and fostering a safe, supportive and inclusive environment for our staff to work in is important for us.

“We have a zero tolerance approach to any form of harassment or discrimination and continually work to uphold these standards for the wellbeing of all of our staff.”