A bus driver with Crohn’s disease, who soiled himself because he was given shifts without sufficient toilet breaks, has been awarded more than £28,000 in compensation by an employment tribunal.
Employment Judge Routley found that Midland Red (South), which trades as Stagecoach in the West Midlands, failed to make reasonable adjustments for the driver when it required him to work shifts that were longer than eight hours, had variable start times, and did not offer enough time for comfort breaks.
The driver had to repeatedly ask for adjustments to his shifts and discuss his condition with managers, which he found humiliating. The tribunal found this amounted to harassment.
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The driver, referred to as XYZ in the judgment to protect his identity, has been employed by the company for over 30 years.
He has Crohn’s disease and in 2016 the company’s occupational health department recommended several adjustments to his role: a fairly predictable work pattern with the opportunity to have three meals per day and take his tablets at the same time; regular access to toilet stops; and shifts of generally no more than eight hours.
The OH report also emphasised that he would need to use the toilet several times a day. If he got out of routine his condition could flare up, resulting in an unpredictable and urgent need to go to the toilet.
The driver had reiterated his needs via the grievance process on several occasions and the company said it would ensure he was given appropriate shifts in future. However, he continued to be given unsuitable work patterns and had been required to work shifts that did not meet his needs.
In January 2022, the driver’s request to change a particular shift was declined because the company felt it had to be “fair to other drivers” when allocating early finishes.
On one occasion he was asked to take a day’s annual leave because he had objected to a shift he had been allocated.
The driver raised a grievance about a shift that was too long and did not offer sufficient toilet breaks in July 2022, which was upheld. The company found that the shift allocation was an error on the part of the commercial team. He was instead allocated a new shift pattern.
The driver told the tribunal that he had soiled himself as a result of working unsuitable shifts. He had to carry clean underwear, toilet paper and wet wipes just in case.
He said he did not raise the soiling incidents with his supervisor because he found discussing his condition difficult and embarrassing.
“His witness statement says that he felt a ‘huge amount of humiliation’ at having to continuously ask the respondent to make adjustments. The respondent’s continued requests that he raise issues with shifts with management was therefore clearly unwanted conduct,” the judgment says.
The tribunal found that the company’s actions had not been malicious, but had created an environment that violated the driver’s dignity.
“We appreciate that the [respondent]’s requirements for staff can change, and that it needs to be able to operate its business with some degree of flexibility. However, we find that in the event that the respondent needed to change the claimant’s shifts, he should have been assigned an alternative shift that met the three criteria. This would have alleviated the disadvantage suffered by the claimant, in that he would not then have soiled himself at work,” the judgment says.
“The respondent has argued that it did its best to meet the claimant’s requirements, but that it could only do what it reasonably could given the nature of its business, the number of employees, third party requirements and extenuating circumstances. However, we are not persuaded that these factors justify the respondent’s failures to make adjustments.”
The judge awarded £25,000 in compensation for injury to feelings, along with £3,819.18 in interest.
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