Boroughbridge coach company fined £30,000 for harassing employee with disability

A coach company based in Boroughbridge will have to pay more than £30,000 after a tribunal found it had harassed an employee who had Asperger’s syndrome.

A hearing at Leeds Employment Tribunal heard Thomas Holland was also subjected to direct discrimination, victimisation and unauthorised deductions from his pay while he worked for A&A Coach Travel, which provides private hire and school transport services.

The tribunal heard Mr Holland had been called “special needs”, an “illiterate cretin”, and an “imbecile”, as well as other offensive terms for people with disabilities, by A&A employee James Fairchild in group chats between all staff.

There were further messages from other employees, shown to the tribunal by Mr Holland, and he said he was also subjected to face-to-face abuse while at work.

A report from the tribunal said:

“The claimant said that he would cry to himself when alone and dreaded going into work each day. He carried on without complaint hoping the behaviour would cease, but it never did.

“He did not tell his father because he felt embarrassed to do so and did not want to cause him any upset. He just kept telling his father that everything was fine.”

However, the problems came to a head in November 2020, when his car was damaged while in the company’s car park. He was told another employee had reversed into it but, when he reported it to transport manager Antoni La Pilusa, Mr Holland found he was “not interested”.

Mr Holland said he was then put under pressure not to pursue an insurance claim for the damage, and that Mr La Pilusa threatened to dismiss him if he did.

The tribunal report said:

“Mr La Pilusa, however, said that the claimant could stop all that by cancelling his insurance claim. In fear, the claimant rang his insurers and attempted to do so. However, his insurers would not let him.

“When he reported this back to Mr La Pilusa, the claimant was given a pen and paper and transcribed, as dictated to him by Mr La Pilusa, an account (accepting blame) which would invalidate any insurance complaint.”

When Mr Holland’s father, Robert, heard what had happened, he helped his son to write a resignation email. He asked for outstanding wages of £576 to be paid.

The company claimed it was deducting the money from his pay to cover damage done to its vehicles while he was driving them. However, the tribunal found there was no evidence that Mr Holland caused any of the damage to the vehicles.

Read more:

After leaving A&A Travel, Mr Holland began working for another bus operator in December 2020. After just a few hours, he was called into the office and told the company had been informed he had caused several accidents in his previous workplace.

Mr Holland said the claim was untrue, but was dismissed from his new job.

He then received a letter from the DVLA saying he had to take a full medical test, putting his right to drive at risk, because it had received information calling into question his mental state and standard of driving.

In March 2021, when Mr Holland was working for another bus company, he was told his employer had received an email from someone at A&A Coach Travel alleging that he was “a danger to women”.

Damage to health

Although Mr Holland did not lose his job, he left because of the impact the situation had on his health. His father told the tribunal Mr Holland was “very depressed and completely withdrawn” at the time, and had not fully recovered since.

The tribunal report, published last week, said:

“The claimant told the tribunal that the whole situation had damaged his health considerably. He was crying all the time, his stammer had returned and he was unable to sleep.

“Whilst he was feeling slightly better now, he still worried about letters coming through the post and didn’t answer his phone unless he knew who the caller was. He described himself as still depressed and not trusting anyone. He said that the last two years had been ‘horrible’.”

Defending A&A Coach Travel at the tribunal, James Fairchild asked Mr Holland why he had not reported the abusive messages to his managers.

Mr Holland said all the company directors and managers had seen the group chat, and he did not want to risk his job by creating problems.

Mr Fairchild told the tribunal Mr Holland had himself been “involved in banter disparaging of others (particularly women)” but he did not provide any evidence of this.

The tribunal heard further claims that Mr Holland had damaged other vehicles, but was again not given any evidence.

Blackmail

The tribunal also heard that Mr Fairchild had emailed Mr Holland’s solicitors in March 2022 saying that some of the evidence presented to show his disabilities seemed “incompatible” with him having a driving licence. He said he would be obliged to report this to the DVLA and Mr Holland’s new employer, unless the tribunal claim was discontinued within a week.

The tribunal said this amounted to blackmail.

The tribunal concluded that the comments made at work to Mr Holland “created a hostile, humiliating and offensive environment”. It also found, on the issue of the damage to his car, Mr La Pilusa “sought to intimidate and threaten” Mr Holland because of his disability.

A&A Coach Travel was ordered to pay compensation of £25,000 to Mr Holland for how he was treated during his employment, and its conduct during the tribunal.

The tribunal also instructed the company of pay £4,069.23 in interest for the 111 weeks since Mr Holland left the company, and £2,000 towards his legal costs.

A further £1,500 was imposed for the company’s unreasonable behaviour during the tribunal process, including sending an abusive email to Mr Holland’s solicitor and failing to meet deadlines set by the panel.