Describing a man as “bald” is “sexual harassment”

A UK Employment Tribunal judge has ruled that calling a man “bald” could qualify as sexual harassment.
Three of the court members who upheld the ruling, citing their own experience with hair loss, said baldness was more prevalent among men than women, CNBC reported.
Therefore, they considered the use of the word ‘bald’ to be an insult related to a ‘protected characteristic of sex’. The court compared describing a man as “bald” to commenting on a woman’s breast size, based on a 1995 case.
The verdict, published on Wednesday, came in a case in which insult was allegedly used against Tony Finn, who was an electrician for a British company.
Finn worked for the company, which makes wooden barrel caps for the brewing industry, in Yorkshire, in north-east England, for nearly 24 years, but was fired last year and the circumstances surrounding his dismissal were also part of the case.

Finn claimed that he was called “bald” and was also threatened by his shift supervisor, Jimmy King, during a dispute in July 2019.
The court decided that the use of this insult was a “violation of the dignity of the plaintiff, as it created an intimidating environment for him, and this was done for this purpose, which is related to the plaintiff’s gender.”
The court decided that Finn would receive compensation, which has not yet been determined. The judges also noted that the problem was not related to the use of profanity, as Finn was also found to use such language in the workplace.
They said: “Although, as we found, industrial language was common on the West Yorkshire factory grounds, in our judgment Mr King crossed the line by making personal observations to the plaintiff as to his appearance.”