Postman who was banned from starting work at 5am by Royal Mail wins £13,000 payout

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ayout.html

A postman has received £13,000 compensation from Royal Mail after being banned from starting work at 5am.

Darren Williams had worked on his early morning rounds in Eccles, Greater Manchester, for decades but was ordered to start later after returning from sick leave.

Starting at this time helped Mr Williams' anxiety as he could avoid crowds and it meant getting home earlier to care for his wife who has her own health issues, a tribunal heard.

Mr Williams was signed off sick from November 2022 to February 2023. When he returned, he was told to start later on a different walk route by Royal Mail, in an effort to reduce the risk of long-term sick leave.

His manager peppered him with emails about the shift time change while he was off work, to which he replied: 'I DON'T WANT TO CHANGE MY HOURS.'

Mr Williams was diagnosed with autism and mental health issues in 2022 so decided to sue Royal Mail on grounds of disability discrimination, with his claim was upheld.

He had said he wanted to start as close to 5am as possible, but was told that it had been moved to 6.45am and 7.30am on Tuesdays.

At the tribunal, he claimed that he felt harassed after getting 'constant email and letters telling me I have to change my hours'.

An employment judge sitting in Manchester ruled that Mr Williams should have been given time to transition to his new schedule.

It was concluded that Royal Mail failed to make reasonable adjustments for his disability - a form of disability discrimination - and should have allowed him to return to work in September 2023 with a 5am start time, before transitioning to 6am.

His claim of disability harassment was dismissed.

The court finally ruled that Mr Williams should be paid £12,925 in compensation for injury to feelings.

Mr Williams began working at the Royal Mail when he was just 15 and had worked from 5am until 12.42pm for decades, arriving at the delivery office at 5am and would start his delivery walks at around 9am. This long-standing routine helped his anxiety.

However, it was not able to overturn the schedule change entirely, with the judge recommending that Royal Mail write to Mr Williams to confirm that his current start time was between 5am and 6am as a 6.45am start would affect his mental health.

Employment Judge Rhodri McDonald said: 'The mechanism to [make reasonable adjustments for his disability] was in place and [Royal Mail] has not provided sufficient evidence that the inconvenience of doing so was sufficient to render having another look unreasonable.

'We do not accept that the fact that there had been a recent revision would make it unreasonable to look again at the Eccles Delivery Walks and see whether a shorter walk could be created as an adjustment to allow [Mr Williams] to have an earlier start time.

'[Mr Williams] suggested that in reality, [Royal Mail] paid little respect to the principle of public service enshrined in the USO and that it was regularly breached.

'We find therefore that it would have been a reasonable step for [Royal Mail] to use the sophisticated systems available to it to design a route which [Mr Williams] could complete in a shorter time slot than his colleagues.

'Allowing [Mr Williams] to start at 05:00 would have required [Royal Mail] to re-distribute a 'surplus' of 1 hour 45 minutes.

'We do not think that would be reasonable, but we do find it would have been a reasonable step to revise the Delivery Walks to allow [Mr Williams] to start his shift at 06:00 and end his shift at 13:42 leaving 45 minutes to be absorbed in other walks.'