Tesco has been ordered by the Labour Court to apologise and pay €8,000 in compensation to a woman who claimed she suffered sexual harassment while working part-time when she was a 17-year-old schoolgirl.
After an investigation the court found Tesco failed to exercise a duty of care by allowing the teenager to remain in a "stressful and uncomfortable working environment" and continue to suffer sexual harassment.
The woman was still at school when she began working 18 hours a week as a sales assistant in the delicatessen department of a north Dublin branch of Tesco.
"Within weeks it is alleged that she became the subject of unwelcome sexual harassment, both of a physical and an explicitly suggestive verbal nature, from a male co-worker," according to the court.
She made a number of complaints which, it was claimed, were not encouraged.
She eventually spoke to the store manager, who agreed to investigate. The investigation found there was not sufficient evidence to support her allegations.
She resigned in April 1999, four months after she had started working with Tesco.
The Mandate trade union took up her case, and it was referred to an equality officer, who found the teenager had not suffered discrimination. The finding was appealed to the Labour Court, which held a hearing last May.
The man accused of harassment denied the allegations.
The woman told the court she was subjected to a "stream of verbal and physical sexual harassment".
The verbal harassment progressed from mild comment to explicit remarks. She said the physical harassment became more serious and involved unwanted bodily contact.
She brought the matter up with a trainee manager, and he advised her to drop the matter.
The court found there was a clear contradiction in almost every detail of the case and a conflict of evidence under oath.
It said it was unhelpful that some of the most crucial witnesses, including five supervisory and management staff, were not available at the court hearing.
On the balance of probabilities, it decided in favour of the woman, and said it was not satisfied Tesco had "acted promptly enough or in accordance with its own sexual harassment policy".