A vegan worker at a Subway has won a harassment claim after her boss waved meat in her face and urged her to eat food she was allergic to. Sandwich artist Kady Reilly's line manager, Himanshu Lahar, would wave food under her nose and say 'go on, eat it, what could happen?', telling her to 'eat like a man, walk like a bull', a tribunal heard.
Not only this, but Mr Lahar would make disparaging comments about her appearance and when she refused to eat the food she was allergic to, he said 'NASA should send you back to Mars', the panel heard. The employment tribunal was told the mum of two made various complaints about the operation of the fast food chain in Glasgow, including that Mr Lahar had served vegan customers dairy cheese when they ran out of a plant-based alternative.
But when bosses at RT Management Bridgeton Limited, which owned the franchise, did not listen, Miss Reilly reported them to Environmental Health and was sacked shortly after an investigation was carried out by the local council. She is now due to receive almost £13,000 after an employment tribunal found she was fired for making the protected disclosures and that her boss' comments went against the Equality Act as her veganism constitutes a philosophical belief.
