The alleged harassment began not long after Ritter joined Savills in 2007.<\/p>\n
The following year, according to the statement of claim, Postma sent Ritter an email stating that she should \u201cGo the boob shot\u201d for Savills\u2019 marketing material.<\/p>\n
A few months before the New Zealand trip, Postma sent Ritter a \u201cstream\u201d of emails in which he allegedly wrote that \u201cSmithy\u201d wanted to see her in a sauna and referred to her breasts, allegedly saying \u201c \u2026 yours are very large and from the hot\u201d.<\/p>\n
Postma again allegedly made references to Ritter\u2019s breasts at Savills\u2019 dress-up Christmas party in December 2017. Ritter in her claim says Postma\u2019s personal assistant took a photograph of Ritter\u2019s breasts, telling her she would be sending it to her boss.<\/p>\n
The following year, Ritter claims, Postma told her to \u201ctake one for the team\u201d and accompany him, Smith and clients to the Penthouse strip club in the Perth nightclub district of Northbridge.<\/p>\n
Ritter also alleges Postma was \u201cfrequently\u201d verbally abusive towards her, and had referred to her as the office \u201ctoken tart\u201d.<\/p>\n
The alleged sexual harassment towards Ritter also came from other leaders in the office.<\/p>\n
Ryan Jacob, current director of valuation and advisory for Savills in Perth, allegedly sent Ritter a string of messages that started with the statement that he was \u201cdisappointed that it wasn\u2019t a booty call\u201d, followed by messages with emoticons referencing a penis and ejaculation. <\/p>\n
Jacob, Ritter alleges, from 2016 onwards also \u201crepeatedly\u201d looked her up and down and stared at her chest.<\/p>\n
Another Savills colleague, Michael Filippou, allegedly sent an email to Ritter and Postma with the subject line \u201cshel we understand how u feel\u201d. The email contained an image of a bare-breasted woman. <\/p>\n
According to Ritter\u2019s claim, the years of mistreatment took a major toll on her mental and physical wellbeing.<\/p>\n
She has been on unpaid sick leave since July 2, 2019, having been \u201ctotally unfit for employment\u201d since that date. In the years leading up to that, she had been earning on average more than $300,000 a year in her role, and in one year collected $556,332 in salary, superannuation and commissions.<\/p>\n
That compensation package, she claims, was less than that afforded to male employees in the same or similar role to hers.<\/p>\n
She continues to suffer from conditions including a major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe applicant\u2019s personal injuries caused by the unlawful discrimination have caused the applicant to experience symptoms and disabilities including chronic stress, disturbed sleep, insomnia, despair, weight loss, hypervigilance, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, nightmares, panic attacks, inability to focus and persist with tasks, fear of leaving her home and going into the CBD, social isolation, stomach pains, vomiting, and a change in personality being easily irritated and quick to anger,\u201d the statement of claim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unlawful discrimination and the injuries caused by the unlawful discrimination caused severe dislocation to the applicant\u2019s life including loss of a fulfilling career that she had aspired towards and worked for since high school, as well as damage to the applicant\u2019s personal relationships, sense of self-worth and sense of identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement of claim does not quantify the amount of damages sought by Ritter. But it says she has suffered a loss of earning capacity and has \u201cpoor\u201d prospects of recovering and returning to her role. <\/p>\n
Given her average annual earnings of more than $300,000, a finding in her favour could potentially be worth $6.6m in lost earnings alone. <\/p>\n
A spokesman for Savills Australia says the company is aware of the claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cSavills Australia takes its obligations as a responsible employer extremely seriously and we remain fully committed to continuing to foster a respectful and inclusive work environment for all our employees consistent with our values,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cConsistent with our established policy of not commenting on matters which are the subject of legal proceedings, as this matter is now before the court, we will not be making any further comment at this stage.\u201d <\/p>\n
The sexual harassment claim against Savills has quickly become the talk of the industry since The Australian broke the story on Thursday.<\/p>\n
If Ritter\u2019s claims are substantiated, they will be the latest example of abhorrent behaviour in the world of office leasing, where huge commissions and intense competition for clients have at times fuelled a deeply questionable culture. <\/p>\n
Last year, Savills rival JLL was engulfed in scandal<\/a> following revelations that JLL national executives allegedly took a female employee and a client to a Melbourne strip club<\/a>, and sent a string of crass messages in a WhatsApp chat filled with JLL employees.<\/p>\n Ritter\u2019s compensation claim against Savills will also examine how she was treated after she flagged that she would speak up about her treatment. <\/p>\n She claims that she first flagged to Postma\u2019s personal assistant in February 2019 that she intended to complain to Savills\u2019 Sydney headquarters about the conduct of her colleagues.<\/p>\n A month later, she says, she was called into a meeting with Postma and Brett Kauffmann \u2013 then Savills\u2019 company director and chief operating officer in Sydney \u2013 where she says the pair told her they had issues with her performance and offered her either a redundancy or a performance management process with no payout.<\/p>\n She says that after the meeting, once Postma had left, Kauffmann told her, \u201cDon\u2019t worry about all that performance stuff, we both know that\u2019s all rubbish\u201d.<\/p>\n The decision handed down by Justice Colvin earlier in the week described how, just a fortnight after Ritter went on unpaid sick leave, Savills sent her a letter telling her it was pausing its investigation into her workplace complaints because \u201cit would be procedurally unfair to continue the investigation without your involvement and input\u201d. <\/p>\n While some of those named in Ritter\u2019s statement of claim continue to work at Savills, others have moved on. <\/p>\n Postma is now a director and commercial property adviser at LPC Western Australia, and Kauffmann is managing director of Revantage Asia Pacific.<\/p>\n Paul Garvey is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades’ experience in newsrooms around Australia and the world. He is currently the senior reporter in The Australian\u2019s WA bureau, covering politics, courts, billionaires and everything in between. He has previously written for The Wall Street Journal in New York, The Australian Financial Review in Melbourne, and for The Australian from Hong Kong before returning to his native Perth. He was the WA Journalist of the Year in 2024 and is a two-time winner of The Beck Prize for political journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the top brass from the Perth arm of office leasing heavyweight Savills, a skiing trip to 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<\/a>Paul Garvey<\/a>Senior Reporter<\/p>\n