A whisky warehouse staffer has won over £14,000 from a Scots whisky giant after he was made to feel like a "nuisance" by bosses who refused to accommodate his mental health issues at work.
Danny Duployen, 39, from Bo'ness, says his bosses at Whyte and Mackay bosses refused to work around his struggles with depression and anxiety. The dad of one, who worked as a forklift driver, was diagnosed in 2020 and put on medication that often left him feeling fatigued and needing to nap two or three times a day.
Bosses at the whisky firm's Grangemouth bottling plant were initially supportive of reducing his hours after the move was recommended by a company-appointed doctor in early 2021. But when Danny asked for the "helpful" change to be made permanent the firm ordered him to return to full-time hours, citing recruitment issues exacerbated by Brexit and the pandemic.
The stress prompted Danny to take a number of days off. Managers ordered him to attend a disciplinary hearing after a single day off sick and withheld sick pay after he turned up at Grangemouth to discuss a return to work.
In September 2021 Danny, who also has autism spectrum disorder, resigned from his job after experiencing suicidal thoughts. The dad told the Record he had been left "ashamed and embarrassed" by his bosses, adding: "Whyte and Mackay’s attitude towards me was very upsetting.
"I had done nothing wrong. This treatment towards me was unhelpful to my mental health problems. I wanted to tell my manager or supervisor that I’m unwell and want to go home, but I felt ashamed and embarrassed, and knew that their reaction would be one of frustration as if I were a nuisance.
"I didn’t know what to do and almost felt like committing suicide in the warehouse."
An employment tribunal has awarded Danny £14,028.64 for lost earnings, discrimination due to a disability and compensation after ruling that he had been constructively dismissed. It concluded that Whyte and Mackay had subjected him to "unfavourable treatment" that breached his contract.
The tribunal heard that Grangemouth bosses had insisted Danny's request for reduced hours couldn't be honoured -- but they admitted they hadn't checked if extra staff were available to plug the gap via a contracted agency. The whisky firm, which employs over 550 people across Scotland, said it had "objective reasons" for its actions - a claim that was dismissed by the tribunal, which described the firm's approach as "inflexible".
Employment judge Alan Strain slammed the distiller for its "draconian and clearly excessive" actions against the forklift driver, but opted to make an award at the lower end of the scale, below what Danny had hoped for.
The financial issues almost destroyed his marriage and for a time Danny was on Universal Credit. He had asked the tribunal to give him his job back at Whyte and Mackay, but it declined to do so on the grounds that the relationship between him and the company had "clearly broken down".
The judge said: "The tribunal considers and finds that the Claimant [Danny] did suffer embarrassment, humiliation and distress as a consequence of the discriminatory treatment by the Respondent [Whyte and Mackay]. The treatment had a detrimental impact on his mental health and impacted on his relationship with his wife."
Danny added: "The award does not compensate for what I have endured and I have been left in a bad position. I am still working 12 hours per week as a takeaway driver and have little hope of finding another permanent job.
"I am hopeful, though, that I will be able to find some Christmas seasonal work soon. Losing my job from Whyte and Mackay and the way they treated me has caused me a great loss of confidence.
"It has also been unhelpful in the recovery of my mental health difficulties."
Whyte and Mackay said: "‘At Whyte and Mackay we take our responsibilities as an employer seriously. We have reflected on the outcome of this case to ensure all learnings have been taken."
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