Pub chain Wetherspoons has been ordered to pay an autistic worker £25,412 after he used his staff discount incorrectly without prior knowledge.
Brandon Halstead has been a kitchen porter at The Albany Palace pub in Trowbridge, Wiltshire since September 2018. He used his discount code for a meal for seven people, including himself, at another Wetherspoons in August 2023. The 20% discount took £19.17 off the total bill.
Following this, he was accused of dishonesty and abusing the employee discount policy. Halstead was called to a disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct, during which he admitted he used his employee discount for himself and more than three other people, unaware it is only applicable to groups of four or less. He also revealed his mother had access to his Wetherspoons app to check his rota timetables, which the employer views as a data security policy violation.
A subsequent meeting was arranged with his mother, who explained she needed access to assist Halstead with planning bus times and arranging lifts to and from work. She also outlined the impact of his autism, stating someone would need to point out the specific policies he was accused of breaching or explain them to him in a meeting.
The entire process caused significant anxiety and he was signed off work due to stress. Halstead’s mother then lodged a formal grievance on behalf of her son.
Senior managers attempted to organise a grievance meeting, however, his mum stated that Halstead returning to work was out of the question. She claimed management had failed to make any reasonable adjustments during the process.
As the meeting never occurred, claims of disability-related harassment and failure to make reasonable adjustments were brough to a tribunal.
Employment Judge Murdoch said: “We find that the application of this standard procedure puts him at a substantial disadvantage compared to someone without his autism. A comparator, although they may find immediate suspension on full pay to be stressful, would not necessarily feel the intensity of stress and anxiety that he did.
“Additionally, in the case of someone without autism, they might have known about the rules of the discount policy and broken them dishonestly, or they might have been dishonest when asked if they had broken the rules. We understand that Wetherspoons might want to suspend them while they were investigating, but in his case, there was no evidence of dishonesty. He admitted straight away to breaking the rules of the discount policy because he was unaware. A typical feature of autism is a strong desire to adhere to rules.”
A Wetherspoons spokesperson said: “The individual is still employed by Wetherspoons and we do not comment on employment matters involving current employees. It should be noted that the employee’s harassment claim was not upheld.”
