Former Le Meridien Al Aqah employee sues Starwood over rape case
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An Australian woman who was jailed for adultery in the UAE after she was reportedly drugged and raped by three male colleagues while working at the Le Meridien Al Aqah Beach Resort in Fujairah is now suing the hotel’s owner.Alicia Gali was an employee at the hotel in June 2008 and was drinking at the staff bar when the incident occurred. After reporting the incident to Fujairah police, she was arrested and sentenced to 12 months in jail. She was pardoned in March 2009 after serving eight months, before returning to Australia.According to Australian daily The Brisbane Times, Gali is now suing Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, claiming that the hotel breached its workplace obligations by failing to have systems in place to protect their workers while also encouraging employees to drink alcohol in the staff bar.”Alicia’s employer has let her down in the most terrible, terrible of ways,” Gali’s solicitor, Maurice Blackburn associate Melissa Payne, told the newspaper.”A company like this should know better. There are many things they could have done and should have done to protect Alicia.”These include having segregated secure quarters for its female employees and providing adequate induction and training as to the local laws and customs for its foreign employees.”This resort promotes itself as ‘paradise on earth’ but it certainly wasn’t paradise for Alicia.”Gali is said to have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, claustrophobia and nightmares as a result of the incident.In a statement, Gali said she was standing up for the rights of other female employees working in countries where laws were “archaic.””I still feel angry and upset and it’s distressing because I was a victim in all of this and I was punished – the laws have to change to protect women and give them rights and the Australian government should use its influence to push for changes to laws,” the statement read.”The UAE is being promoted hugely here as a tourism destination. They are not complying with human rights, women’s rights and migrant workers’ rights.”A spokesperson for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide was unavailable for comment at the time of press.
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