A Royal Mail delivery driver has been awarded £4,000 for “injury to feelings” after he had a panic attack because he was relocated to a new route 10 miles away.
An employment tribunal was told that Paul Phillips suffers with anxiety and depression and felt “additional stress” at the prospect of having to spend more time commuting to and from work.
Originally based at Inverclyde, Phillips was ordered to move after an altercation in which he acted “aggressively” to another driver in February 2023.
Six months later, on the morning he was due to start working in Erskine — which is about 10 miles away — he told Iain Dunn, Royal Mail’s customer operations manager, that he was “not in a good place” mentally and did not feel fit to work as he had had a panic attack the night before.
Brian Campbell, the tribunal judge, who was sitting with panel members Robert McPherson and John Gallagher, ruled that the panic attack was caused by the prospect of the longer commute, and “other stressors, not the responsibility of the respondent”.
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Phillips’ commute was to increase from a 12-minute drive to a 40-minute bus ride followed by a 30-minute walk. No bus service was available early enough for his Saturday shift.
The tribunal in Glasgow was told that Phillips had no reasonable way to travel to Erskine, as he was not offered a work van. His wife needed their only car for work and so he would be commuting for about four hours each day on public transport.
The transfer would have had a knock-on effect on his family life and responsibilities, the tribunal ruled.
Phillips claimed that the way he was treated amounted to disability discrimination.
Since he started working for Royal Mail in October 2021, Phillips’ mental health deteriorated as he became the main carer for his young children. He had periods of time off work for sickness, including two weeks in 2022 after a panic attack.
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His mental state worsened after the disciplinary hearing into the February 2023 incident for which he was given a “suspended dismissal” and told he would be transferred.
Phillips appealed against the decision to relocate him and, after the panic attack the morning he was due to start at Erskine, told Dunn that uncertainty of the appeal outcome was “hanging over [him]”.
Paul Corrigan, who was customer operations manager and office manager, told the postman he was being treated as “uncooperative” and would not receive sick pay.
The managers told the tribunal they did this out of a “genuine motive of applying the sick pay policy fairly and not out of malice”.
They believed Phillips was stressed only because of the unconcluded appeal and this meant he could not be treated as medically unfit to work under company policy.
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Dunn told Phillips that he was expected to return to work. Phillips, after being given another sick note from his GP, raised a grievance. The situation was resolved when Corrigan offered him the temporary use of a work van.
The claimant has since settled at the Erskine depot and, the tribunal noted, is “enjoying his work among colleagues he considers supportive and understanding”.
The tribunal ruled that the “injury to feelings” compensation should fall below the midpoint of the £1,100 to £11,200 award available, due to the “relatively short-term nature of the detriment and the fact that it and its effects ceased entirely”.
The tribunal settled on the figure of £4,000, with interest of 8 per cent per year.
They also considered the “seriousness” of Royal Mail halting Phillips’ pay and ruled that the respondent made unlawful deductions from the claimant’s wages. They were ordered to pay Phillips a further £2,125 for lost income tax and National Insurance contributions.
