Sex discrimination: Victimisation complaint requires employer to be vicariously liable

In Waters v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the EAT holds that an industrial tribunal correctly rejected a complaint by a female employee that she was victimised by her employer because she alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by a male colleague. According to the EAT, in order for a victimisation complaint of this kind to succeed under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, it must be shown that the act in question, if established, is one for which the employer would be vicariously liable and so treated as done by the employer as well as the fellow employee.