Students face sexism and misogyny at weekend jobs

A school has launched a campaign urging employers to make workplaces safe spaces after students shared stories about sexual harassment, sexism and misogyny they had faced.

Torquay Girls' Grammar School, in Devon, is encouraging firms to sign up to a charter featuring 10 pledges after it heard some of its older students' experiences at their part-time jobs.

The campaign has been backed by Torbay MP Steve Darling, who raised the issue with Parliament's Employment Right's Committee and said this behaviour in the workplace needed to be socially unacceptable.

One student said a man tried to kiss her and she reported it to police. Others have spoken of managers not tackling issues as they happen.

Some of the students spoke to the BBC about their workplace experiences in restaurants and retail. We have not used their real names to protect their identities.

Rachael said: "I was taking some drinks over to this man who was with his family and he had two young children.

"He said something to me along the lines of: 'I want you to be at the top of my Christmas wish list, or I'm going to put you at the top off my Christmas wish list.'

"I went over to my manager and I just said this guy has made a strange comment to me and I explained what it was, and he said just to ignore it and to not take it seriously because he's buying drinks and food, so he just dismissed it."

Mia said a customer would always come in when she was working and would always focus on her.

She said: "It got to a point where he would wait for me to finish my shift.

"It just made me feel really uncomfortable all the time, like it was horrible.

"It was just the repetitiveness of it. I was dreading my shifts in case he was there.

"I had to move jobs because of it and I didn't tell anyone I'd moved jobs in case he would find out."

Louise said she was initially not concerned when a customer approached her: "Honestly, because I was in a supermarket setting I just thought it was a friendly, interested in a food shop kind of encounter.

"He approached me a few more times in different aisles.

"He ended it asking me to model for him, asking if I would meet him privately and bring a friend with me to do this modelling, and he listed three different shoots for me to do with different outfits.

"At this point I had already sent a little message to security, so they got him out. But he told me he'd come back in and see me next week to give me his Instagram for this modelling thing, even though I had said I was not interested like four or five times.

"It's just the ongoing fear of going to work - if he's going to come in or not that day."

The school's deputy head Emma Browne has been encouraging the students to take action, saying such incidents are "not OK, it is illegal".

She said: "We need to support young people to understand that we can make a difference if we work collectively as a society to bring about change, which is long overdue in my opinion."

Whistl is a business that is taking part in the campaign and has been employing young people from Torbay for years.

"It's important that we set an example to make sure that workplaces are safe," said Whistl's recruiter and trainer Matt Prowse.

"There's no place for prejudice or inappropriate behaviour and it has got to be challenged."

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