Calling a man ‘bald’ is sexual harassment, UK judge rules

Calling a man “bald” is sexual harassment, an employment tribunal has ruled.

The three-member tribunal, which was led by Judge Jonathan Brain, had to determine whether a reference to someone’s lack of hair was simply an insult or amounted to harassment.

Hair loss is significantly more common among men than women so using it to describe someone is a form of discrimination, a judge has concluded. Commenting on a man’s baldness in the workplace is equivalent to remarking on the size of a woman’s breasts, the finding suggests.

The decision relates to a claim of unfair dismissal and sex discrimination brought by Tony Finn against the West Yorkshire-based British Bung Company, where he worked as an electrician for 24 years before he was fired in May last year.

“In our judgment, there is a connection between the word ‘bald’ on the one hand and the protected characteristic of sex on the other,” the judgment said.

The tribunal accepted that the lawyer appearing on behalf of the company, British Bung Manufacturing Company Limited, was right to submit that women, as well as men, may be bald. “However, as all three members of the tribunal will vouchsafe, baldness is much more prevalent in men than women. We find it to be inherently related to sex,” the judgment notes.

Finn had worked at the company, which manufactures wooden cask closures for the brewing industry, in Yorkshire in the northeast of England, for nearly 24 years. He was fired last year and the circumstances around his dismissal were also part of the case.

Finn claimed that he was called a “bald c—” and was also threatened by his shift supervisor, Jamie King, in a dispute in July 2019.

The tribunal determined that using this insult was a “violation against the claimant’s [Finn] dignity, it created an intimidating … environment for him, it was done for that purpose, and it related to the claimant’s sex.”

The tribunal members also suggested that it was not the use of profanities that was the issue, with Finn also having used profanities in the workplace: “Although, as we find, industrial language was commonplace on this West Yorkshire factory floor, in our judgment Mr King crossed the line by making remarks personal to the claimant about his appearance.” 

Finn is set to receive compensation on the tribunal’s ruling, though the amount had not yet been determined.