Fondled worker paid a fortune


QUEENSLAND employers are on notice to install security to keep staff safe after a massive damages payout to a female optical technician sexually assaulted by a customer at work.

The woman has been awarded almost $400,000 because Brisbane optometry business owners Adam and Elizabeth Lusk failed to provide adequate security.

Executive director of the National Retail Association Gary Black said it was one of the highest damages awards for a workplace-related case and was likely to have a major impact on business.

``It may well be that it is going to impose harsh obligations on retailers if there is some proposition that there has to be a safe room for employees at work,'' he said.

Supreme Court Justice Roslyn Atkinson said the installation of a $300 infra-red beam or a $1200 self-locking door could have prevented the female employee - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - being assaulted in a back room of the shop.



The woman, in her 40s, was sexually assaulted in 2005 by a male customer, 70, a retired accountant, who followed her into a back room of the Rosalie practice while she was alone in the shop. There was no door between the front customer service area and the back section where she did repairs.

The man came from behind as she was repairing his glasses, put his hands on her hips, gyrated behind her, and cupped his hands on her breasts.

The Supreme Court in Brisbane heard the customer later was charged with sexual assault, but died just days before his District Court trial.

The woman revealed to police that she had been a victim of indecent assault as a child and said the sexual assault by the customer revived bad memories. Psychological injuries as a result of the sexual assault stopped her from working in any optometry business.

Justice Atkinson said her employers had owed her a duty of care to avoid any foreseeable risk of injury.

``It is not far-fetched to suggest that a woman working alone in close customer contact, even in an apparently pleasant suburban setting, is vulnerable to assault, particularly if the performance of her duties takes her to a part of the premises that is not visible to passing traffic and yet is unable to be secured,'' Justice Atkinson said.


She said the owners breached their duty to their employee by failing to install simple security measures.
Justice Atkinson ordered the woman be paid $387,633 damages. The Lusks declined to comment.