A Tesco delivery driver has been awarded £17,000 after he was sacked for taking toilet breaks at his home during work.
Billy Fitzsimmons, from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, has medical issues including an enlarged prostate, which means he needs to use the bathroom regularly and at short notice.
But he was told he could not use the staff lavatory at stores where he did not work without being accompanied.
Instead, he would pop home between deliveries if he was nearby, and use the toilet there.
On some occasions, Mr Fitzsimmons would also have to go home to change his clothes after an episode of incontinence.
A tribunal heard how despite his health issues, Mr Fitzsimmons made his deliveries on time and received no complaints about his service.
Tesco delivery vans are fitted with tracking systems that record the speed and locations of all their vehicles.
Bosses discovered that over a three month period Mr Fitzsimmons had stopped at his home address 34 times for a total of 795 minutes.
This was brought to their attention after his manager at the time spoke to him about an unrelated incident, sparking a formal investigation.
This led to Mr Fitzsimmons being dismissed for gross misconduct for the "deliberate disregard and abuse of Tesco procedures through the unauthorised use of tesco.com vans".
Mr Fitzsimmons told the supermarket about his health problems and said he had been embarrassed to speak to bosses.
In the letter outlining the reasons for his dismissal, his manager wrote: "It is my belief that there has been a complete disregard and abuse of Tesco policies at a level I have not seen in my career."
Mr Fitzsimmons was diagnosed in 2018 with a urinary tract infection and enlarged prostate.
The supermarket said it knew about his prostate issues, but claimed it was unaware he occasionally suffered incontinence.
But employment Judge Melanie Sangster argued that, by the time of his sacking, the supermarket would have known.
She added: "It was accordingly clear that [Mr Fitzsimmons] had genuine health issues which required ease of access to toilet facilities.
"That ease of access could be guaranteed at [his] home, but not elsewhere and was accordingly, latterly, the reason for [him] returning home to use his own bathroom facilities, in periods when he would otherwise have been parked up in the local area.
"No reasonable employer would have dismissed the claimant for returning home to use his own facilities in these circumstances."
Mr Fitzsimmons won claims of unfair dismissal and discrimination arising from disability, with Tesco ordered to pay £15,613 compensation and a further £2,020 for injury to feeling.
He made a separate claim of discrimination arising from disability and claims of failure to make reasonable adjustments and wrongful dismissal but these were dismissed.
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We are disappointed by the outcome of this case and will consider what we can learn from it.”
