Charity chief accused of sex discrimination 'told female staff member she looked dead sexy' at Woman's Day event Saskia Hamer said she felt 'intimidated and very uncomfortable' by the personal comments

The chief executive of an equality charity told a female member of staff she looked 'dead sexy tonight' in a dress, an employment tribunal heard today.

Saskia Hamer, 37, wore the dress to an evening event to mark International Women’s Day with her boss Naz Malik from the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association.

But Miss Hamer, who worked as a development officer for the charity, told how she felt 'intimidated and very uncomfortable' by Mr Malik’s personal comments.

Miss Hamer was giving evidence in the case of a colleague claiming sexual harassment and discrimination against Mr Malik

She said: 'Mr Malik has made numerous comments to me of a personal nature.

'We were celebrating International Women’s Day. Some of my female work colleagues were intending to wear dresses.

'I was uncomfortable with that but, however, I did wear a dress.

'The evening broke up at approximately 11.30pm and myself and another colleague were carrying exhibition stands to Mr Malik’s car.

'I was then there by myself with Mr Malik. At that point he told me that he had to let me know that he thought I looked 'dead sexy tonight'.

'I found this very intimidating and very uncomfortable.

'This is just one example of how Mr Malik would come out with comments.

'When my colleague arrived back he did not make any more comments that evening.'

Miss Hamer gave evidence in support of charity AWEMA’s former finance officer, Sylwia Bobrowska who claims Mr Malik, 60, sexually harassed her, discriminated against and victimised her.

She claimed Mr Malik 'made a habit of being over-critical of women colleagues and belittling them in meetings'.

Miss Hamer told how Mr Malik talked about the problems of having an affair in Swansea where the charity was based - and targeted his comments at Mrs Bobrowska.

She said: 'He said that if she wanted to have secrets then she was living in the wrong city as he could find out within a matter of weeks the name of her grandmother.

'He then proceeded to say that if she was going to have an affair, then she was not to do it in Swansea.

'He then started giving an example of the gay politician who had moved to Wales.

'He said that within a few months everybody knew this politician was gay.'

Ms Hamer said that from her body language it was clear that Ms Bobrowska was very upset by his comment.

She said: 'My immediate reaction was to think that Naz Malik knew something about Sylwia and that Sylwia was having an affair in Swansea and that he wanted to make her know that he knew about it.

'The comments were not humorous nor said in a humorous manner. I was concerned for Sylwia during this time.

'Mr Malik does not behave like this towards male colleagues. He would not have said such comments to any of the male staff but he has no hesitation about making such comments to female members of staff.'

Mrs Bobrowska was suspended and then dismissed after she lodged a grievance about her treatment by Mr Malik.

Mr Malik denied Ms Bobrowska’s allegations and also denied telling Miss Hamer that she was 'dead sexy'.

Mr Malik did not dispute making comments about the difficulty of having a secret affair in Swansea, although he denied they were specifically addressed to Ms Bobrowska.

The hearing in Cardiff is continuing.