A disabled IT manager who won a discrimination claim after his boss moaned he was too "slow" in evacuating the office during a fire drill has been awarded more than £30,000. Andrew Lawton was left "humiliated" when he reached the bottom of five flights of stairs and company owner Raj Singh complained he took too long.
The computer expert, who suffers from a condition which causes debilitating leg pain and regularly uses crutches, was also quizzed by Mr Singh why he spent so much time in the toilet. And when Mr Lawton asked to work from home when the lift wasn't working, "authoritarian" boss Mr Singh saw it as a "challenge to his authority" and sought to remove him.
At an employment tribunal last year, he successfully sued surveillance tech firm Crystal Ball Ltd for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination. Now, Mr Lawton has been awarded compensation of £30,011. The employment tribunal heard that Mr Lawton was appointed to Manchester-based Crystal Ball Ltd in 2015.
