Wrexham: Sacked blind baker treated unfavourably – tribunal

A man who is registered blind is seeking a £112,000 payout after being sacked during his probation period at a bakery.

An employment tribunal found that not enough was done by bosses at The Village Bakery in Coedpoeth, Wrexham, to accommodate Ian Stanley and help him adjust to his role.

He was dismissed six weeks into his three-month probationary period which the company claimed was on health and safety grounds, that production levels were affected and there was a risk of damage to machinery.

An employment tribunal upheld his claim of “unfavourable treatment” in being dismissed because of his disability and a further hearing will decide a financial settlement.

Tribunal judge Rhian Brace said: “We accept that in principle the aims relied on were capable of being legitimate aims, we were only persuaded that the first, that of efficient production, was in the respondent’s mind when dismissing the claimant.”

Mr Stanley, who was diagnosed with Bardet Biedl syndrome, external, an inherited genetic condition, in 2010, had previously worked as a packer in another factory for 18 years when he was taken on by The Village Bakery last July.