The Supreme Court has upheld the sentences of up to two years and seven months in prison for the head of a company in the Canary Islands and his wife for subjecting two employees who were a couple to "continuous and repeated humiliating and offensive treatment." In addition, it has sentenced the same boss and a second one for sexually abusing one of them.
The ruling states that since March 2017, the company's delegate in Gran Canaria and his wife "knowingly and taking advantage of their" hierarchical "position" "subjected" the two employees "to a continuous and repeated humiliating, offensive and disrespectful treatment, undermining their psychological integrity."
They forced them every day to have breakfast and lunch in the place they decided and for the time they deemed appropriate; also to be part of a chat in which they had to send a good morning message five minutes before entering the office and in which they also had to answer a message at night "under penalty of being reprimanded the next day" and even "threatened with being fired."
In addition, they addressed them in this way: "packages", "bitter faces", "what you need is a good fuck", "badly fucked."
The convicted, believing that they were a couple, told them that they had to end their relationship, that they could not be friends, to the point of demanding it by banging on the table in an office.
But, in addition, between March 2017 and February 2018, the boss "subjected" one of them "to frequent sexual innuendos." In fact, on one occasion, while sitting in the office, he approached her from behind and stroked her breasts with his hand.
The third convicted person, who is the company's delegate in Tenerife, on a trip to Las Palmas, showed one of them a photo of himself coming out of the shower and reproached her for "only being with women." After that, he proposed to go out partying and then to a hotel. She refused.
But things went further because the boss of Tenerife asked the other worker for permission to go out with her partner. Uncomfortable with the situation, one of them went to the bathroom and when she came out, the convicted man grabbed her arm, hugged her from behind, and rubbed against her.
The Criminal Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria sentenced the head of the eastern province to two years and seven months in prison for crimes of abuse and sexual harassment; his partner, to eight months for workplace harassment and the head of the western province, to one year and eight months in prison for sexual abuse, a ruling that was fully ratified by the Las Palmas Court.
And now the Supreme Court confirms the sentence, highlighting, among other things, that "the touching of an erogenous zone, such as a woman's breast, is an act of sexual content." "It is an action of unconsented, surprising sexual nature, which required a consent that, since it is not proven, implies an attack on her sexual freedom to decide and accept that touching."
