An employer has been ordered to pay a former employee more than £26,000 for deliberately coughing in her face during the Covid pandemic.
Kevin Davies, the father of Welsh rugby player Gareth Davies, tried to “ridicule and intimidate” the woman because of her health problems, a court has heard.
Davies, 62, mocked the employee at his car sales and property business in the days before lockdown after she raised health fears with colleagues.
The woman had asked her colleagues at Cawdor Cars to socially distance themselves from her – as recommended by authorities – because she suffered from psoriatic arthritis and an autoimmune disease.
Employment judge Tobias Vincent Ryan said Davies “deliberately and loudly coughed in her direction, remarking that she was being ridiculous”. Judge Ryan said Davies had sought to “ridicule and intimidate” the woman with his “rude behaviour” on March 17, 2020, a week before the first lockdown was announced.
The hearing was told the woman worked for Cawdor Cars in Newcastle Emlyn, west Wales, between 2017 and 2020 and earned £11 an hour. The company has six branches across south and west Wales. It also has a property rental division where she worked as a property manager for its portfolio, including hotels and housing developments.
Judge Ryan found that other members of the company’s management team had heard the coughing incident, but said that when they were called to give evidence in court they were “defensive and not entirely forthcoming”.
The court heard the woman complained “vehemently” about the coughing incident and resigned from the company less than three months later.
Ryan said: “She resigned in part because she was retaliated against. That was a major and significant factor in her decision. She felt she was being pushed out in part because of her complaints. She was right.”
The judge ordered the woman to receive £26,438.84 in compensation – with Cawdor Cars paying her £18,000 in damages for injury to feelings and Davies paying £3,841.94 for unfair dismissal and £4,596.90 in interest.
Speaking after the hearing, the woman said she was “nervous” after Davies’ “horrible” behaviour. She said: “He knew about my condition. He knew I had no immune protection because of the medication I had to take, and he deliberately coughed in my face. I was shaking. I’m not a stupid, weak person – I’ve been through a lot in my life – but it really affected me.”
Davies’ son Gareth, nicknamed Gareth Cawdor because of his connection with his father’s business, has 77 international caps for Wales and has toured twice with the British and Irish Lions.
