A PUBLIC hospital cafe ­supervisor, whose female manager asked her at a work Christmas party if she would join in a threesome with another female, has won compensation for sexual harassment.

Queensland Health and the manager who was found to have made the threesome comment, were ordered by a tribunal to pay another employee $9000.

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The manager also harassed and bullied the victim at work and Queensland Health “poorly investigated” the victim’s sexual and workplace harassment complaints, a tribunal found.

The sexual harassment caused the victim to develop a psychological injury, Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal member Ann ­Fitzpatrick said in a recently published decision.

While the victim was working at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital’s Connect Cafe as food and retail services supervisor, the other woman was her line manager.

The victim told the tribunal she became so stressed by the manager’s aggressive and abusive management, that she eventually left her job.

Ms Fitzpatrick found the threesome comment, denied by the manager, had been made by her at a work-related Christmas party at Brisbane’s Paddington Tavern in 2011.

She accepted the evidence of the victim and her husband that the manager asked if she would join her and another female colleague in a threesome.

The manager also said she wanted to “experiment with people she knew”, it was found.

The victim said she made it clear she was not interested.

“I accept (the victim’s) evidence that she was offended and made to feel very uncomfortable,” Ms Fitzpatrick said, finding it was sexual harassment.

She found on the same occasion the manager told the victim her breasts were nice and she wished she had breasts like hers, lifting her shirt to expose her own breasts.

However, the tribunal member said it was not sexual harassment.

Ms Fitzpatrick found the manager also said to the employee at another work social function at Brisbane’s Stamford Plaza hotel in December 2011: “I’m not wearing any undies’’.

On the drive back to work in the employee’s car, the manager told her: “I’m sitting in your leather seats with no undies on.’’

Ms Fitzpatrick found they were light-hearted comments in a group context, and not sexual harassment.

Ms Fitzpatrick rejected Queensland Health submissions that the victim had made complaints to deflect from her own poor work performance.

The member awarded the victim compensation for her adjustment disorder and for embarrassment and humiliation.

Queensland Health, which paid the compensation, said it was committed to providing employees with a safe, secure and productive work environment, free from harassment.

It had a zero tolerance approach to workplace and sexual harassment, outlined in a policy and code of conduct.