Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs She was so anxious, the faculty’s HR director offered to call her during the dinner so she could claim there was a family issue and leave. When the manager called during the dinner, the woman said she was having a good time.At the end of the dinner, Owczarek clasped her hands and said, “I love you”, shocking the woman, the Fair Work Commission was told. She said she did not reciprocate his feelings, which he disputed.The University of Melbourne Credit: Penny StephensThe day after the dinner, Owczarek sent the woman a text: “As I have potted around an empty house this morning kept company only by a sleepy furball until a few moments ago and during a slow meditative run I have been supremely serene and a feeling of utter happiness has pervaded my existence. I am extremely grateful to be alive. Thank you so much for the most wonderful evening. Yours always, Aleks. P.s who needs white powder when you have this.”The woman waited two days to reply, the tribunal heard, and apologised for the slow response in a bid to “keep the peace” while she worked out what to do.She didn’t attend work that week, explained to HR what had happened and was told to tell Owczarek she didn’t feel the same way. While she was off work during that week, Owczarek sent the woman nine messages which went unanswered.Seven days after the dinner, the woman sent the professor a text telling him she was unable to attend work because what he said at dinner made her “very uncomfortable”.‘Thank you so much for the most wonderful evening. Yours always, Aleks. P.s who needs white powder when you have this.’Part of a text message Alexsander Owczarek sent his colleague in September 2019Her text read: “We are friends but no more than that. I need to establish more space between work and personal life and I hope our working relationship can continue. I’m not able to talk to you about this at the moment.”Owczarek responded with a text that day: “I am very sorry to have made you feel at all uncomfortable and will work with you to make sure you feel right.”He also sent another message, telling her he wanted to apologise in person and get their working relationship on track. He wrote in that message: “As you may appreciate I am struggling to undertake my work understanding I have so deeply hurt you I am cognizant [sic] of the number of issues in my inbox and of course PBC [planning and budget conference] next week I do understand your need to have some time as a breather.”LoadingOwczarek told the HR manager he hadn’t meant to upset his colleague but wanted to hear her voice. The manager told the professor he needed to stop, and when Owczarek said he didn’t understand, the manager told him: “You do.”At a meeting between the professor and the woman, she told him their relationship was one of “colleagues”, and he assured the woman he didn’t have “feelings” for her, the commission was told.When the University of Melbourne investigated Owczarek’s conduct, the HR manager said the professor was like a “teenage boy with a romanticised view of what life is like and what women are like”.“He is a disaster waiting to happen because he romanticises friendships,” the manager told the university’s investigator.The university argued to the Fair Work Commission that Owczarek was motivated to pursue a romantic relationship with the woman, and that for 18 months after the dinner, his text messages and actions amounted to sexual misconduct.In that time, he repeatedly sent texts and reached out to the woman, despite him returning to the mathematics department in December 2020. Over several months, he asked to catch up for coffee or lunch, and the woman said each time she was too busy.Owczarek also messaged her about new year’s celebrations, sent her photos of his new puppy and about a workplace issue. The woman did not respond to the messages.On March 10, 2021, when Owczarek texted the woman asking to catch up over lunch, she replied: “Your perceived closeness to me makes me feel uncomfortable, and I do not wish to catch up. That will not change, and I would appreciate it if you stopped asking me to meet. And please stop enquiring after me through my colleagues.”LoadingOwczarek told her he would comply, and later apologised to her in a formal letter.“I had no idea how this has been affecting you, and I am mortified that this has had such an effect. I humbly apologize [sic] for any distress that I have caused you,” he wrote.The tribunal heard there was no suggestion of additional contact from that point.In February 2023, Owczarek applied for a position in the University of Melbourne science faculty, which prompted the woman, who still worked there, to file a formal complaint against him. The woman later told the tribunal she did so to “stop him getting the role”, but not for him to lose his job.The university launched an investigation in March 2023 and dismissed the professor in December that year.LoadingFair Work Commission deputy president Andrew Bell, in a decision published late last year, said Owczarek “clearly crossed a professional boundary”, and his actions at the September 2019 dinner constituted sexual harassment.Bell said the professor “lost all sense of personal and professional objectivity” at the dinner, when with a younger female colleague.Bell also slammed Owczarek’s decision to send the text the day after the dinner, and found the message “difficult to read”.“It must have been difficult for the [woman] to receive, and I have no hesitation in accepting her evidence that this text message confirmed in her mind that Dr Owczarek had deeper feelings for her than friendship.”But the Fair Work Commission deputy president found the university’s sacking of Owczarek was “harsh, unjust and unreasonable”. Although there was misconduct, he found it was not to the extent that Owczarek should be dismissed.“Dismissal was disproportionate in circumstances where there was no credible evidence of any ongoing misconduct or similar conduct since March 2021 and the complaint was not lodged to have Dr Owczarek dismissed but to preclude his reappointment to a faculty level position.”Bell said the university had a legitimate concern about Owczarek’s “profound lack of insight about appropriate workplace boundaries”.But Bell ordered the professor to be reinstated at the university.The university said in a statement it was considering an appeal.Loading“We are pleased that the Fair Work Commission confirmed the view of the university that Dr Owczarek engaged in serious misconduct in the form of sexual harassment and that he failed to provide a respectful, safe, rewarding and environmentally sustainable learning and working environment,” a university spokesperson said.“Within that context, the university is concerned that the Fair Work Commission has ordered Dr Owczarek to be reinstated to his employment.”Owczarek told this masthead he was grateful for the tribunal’s decision for the opportunity to resume his academic career at the university.“The findings … that there was no valid reason for my termination, and that the actions of the university were additionally harsh and unjust and unreasonable, have confirmed this,” he said.“The past 12 months have been very difficult for me and my family, but I always maintained that there was no proper basis for the termination of my employment after more than 31 years of distinguished service.”The woman no longer works at the university.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. 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