Legally blind man wins £18,500 in compensation after suing bakery which sacked him for dropping bread and crashing into equipment

A blind man who sued a bakery after he was sacked for allegedly dropping bread and making mistakes has won a £18,500 payout. 

Ian Stanley, 38, was let go just six weeks into his three-month probationary period at The Village Bakery in Coedpoeth, Wrexham.

The company, which employs 170 at the plant where he worked, claimed he was axed on health and safety grounds – saying production was hit and there was a risk of damage because of his mistakes. 

Mr Stanley, who is registered blind and was diagnosed with Bardet Biedl Syndrome in 2010, had previously worked as a packer in another food factory for 18 years when he was taken on by the bakery in July 2023 amid a recruitment drive.  

Bosses claimed Mr Stanley had been crashing racks of bread into machinery, dropping loaves and not cleaning trays properly during his £28,000-a-year night shift role.

He was given various jobs, including measuring the temperature of the bread, but had difficulty reading the thermometer. He also had problems in using a small keypad to clock in.

But, an employment tribunal found Mr Stanley should have been given more time to learn the layout of the factory and other procedures, while employers should have been more accommodating and help him adjust to his role.

Employment Judge Rhian Brace upheld his claim of ‘unfavourable treatment’ in being dismissed because of his disability and awarded him £18,500 in compensation, including £12,000 for injury to feelings. 

Ian Stanley, 38, who is registered blind, has won a £18,500 payout after suing The Village Bakery in Coedpoeth (pictured) where he was sacked for allegedly making mistakes

Mr Stanley was diagnosed with Bardet Biedl syndrome, an inherited genetic condition, in 2010. 

He said he had impaired 6/60 vision- meaning he can see at six metres what someone with standard vision could see from 60 metres away.

The tribunal held in Mold, North Wales, heard that his bosses knew of his disability but other workers were not told he was registered blind. 

Announcing the decision to award compensation, Judge Brice 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.

‘We concluded that giving the claimant more time to familiarise himself with the processes, the people and the factory environment would have been a practicable step that would have been effective.’

Tom Breeze, manager of the Coedpoeth bakery, said the company could not afford to employ someone specially to help Mr Stanley even on a short-term basis. 

But the tribunal rejected this argument.

‘Even if this adjustment had a significant cost associated with it, which we were not persuaded that it would, it may still have been cost-effective in overall terms – for example, compared with the costs of slowing down the production and paying someone to take on half of the claimant’s workload, which the respondent appears to have been undertaking,’ the judge said.

The panel also rejected the argument that health and safety issues were a consideration because Mr Stanley had been allowed to continue working for six weeks without a health and safety assessment.

However, in the remedy judgement, the tribunal concluded ‘there was no more than a 50% chance of the claimant reaching the standard required at the end of that probationary period with adjustments and continuing in employment beyond the probationary period as extended.’