Louise Hutt was out running when a man "howled and yelled" at her

A woman is disgusted after she was "howled and yelled at like an animal" by a male passenger in a company work van.

Louise Hutt, 25, was running at 7.30am on December 12 along the Cobham Drive river path in Hamilton when she was verbally harassed by a man in a Civtec van.

The Hamilton company specialises in underground thrusting, civil works and directional drilling.

KELLY HODEL/STUFF Louise Hutt was going for a run in Hamilton when a guy yelled out at her from the passenger seat of his Civtec company van. She made a complaint to the company who she said were surprisingly great to deal with, apologised and further told her the action they were taking.

"I don't care if he thought it was a compliment - it wasn't. It was gross and it made me feel gross," Hutt said.

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"I even passed high school boys biking to school who politely nodded and said good morning - being far more respectful than this grown man.

SUPPLIED The verbal harassment occurred along the river path in Hamilton East on Cobham Drive.

"I'm not an animal who needs to be howled or yelled at. I would really hate to see that kind of behaviour perpetuated to other members of the public."

The incident prompted her to email Civtec and make a complaint. And she was impressed with Civtec's response.

"I told them I had an encounter with some of their staff and I wanted to bring their behaviour to the company's attention," Hutt said.

"I wasn't really hopeful. I sent the email and prepped myself for either no response or to be completely blown off or revictimised."

It was Hutt's first run in six months after she was attacked by a dog along the same river path.

The company responded by saying it was having a one-on-one meeting with each of the persons involved to talk about acceptable behaviour and what the company expects from its employees.

The person involved was disciplined "appropriately within the company".

Managers also had a meeting with all employees to talk about appropriate behaviour and discuss the incident.

"I thought that was impressive," Hutt said. "It wasn't just dealing with that one person but actually ensuring that their workplace as a whole knew that it wasn't acceptable, and they were putting a stop to any kind of behaviour like that again."

Civtec​ managing director Renae Smart said the company took the complaint seriously.

"We want the public and the community to have a good relationship and have confidence in us as a company.

"So when these things are raised, we deal with them and make sure we set expectations with the team on what appropriate behaviour is."

She added it was an employment issue and she wasn't going to go into specifics, but felt the situation had been dealt with and the complainant was happy with the company's response.

Hutt shared the incident on her social media accounts and received stories from other women who deal with that type of abuse.

Some asked for a copy of the email she sent to Civtec.

"One said she walks past construction workers every day on her way to work and she can't avoid them.

"She said they've been treating her like s... for weeks now and she didn't know how to approach their boss."

The incident hasn't put Hutt off. She continues to run along the river path.

"Everyone makes mistakes, but it's how you deal with them.

"Just because we feel like we're accustomed to that behaviour doesn't mean we should accept it.

"I felt like they [Civtec] took it on board and listened. It makes me feel better to know that it won't happen again to me by that person, but maybe others also."

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