A long-serving Sainsbury’s store manager has been awarded almost £12,000 in damages after an employment tribunal found his bosses had treated him unfairly by excluding him from social media posts celebrating male leaders in the company. Darren Cooper, who manages the supermarket’s Pontypridd branch in south Wales, told the court the oversight had left him feeling “ostracized, humiliated and violated” and that he had called in sick due to anxiety. The panel ruled he should receive £11,852 in compensation, including £7,500 for emotional distress, the BBC reported.
Posts designed to celebrate male leaders
The controversy centers on a November 2022 post shared by Cooper regional director Matt Hourihan on LinkedIn and the company’s internal Yammer platform. In the message, Houlihan said he wanted to “celebrate alpha males” in Sainsbury’s stores across South Wales and England. He wrote:“You all lead busy lives outside of work and deal with health, family and personal issues in the same way as everyone else, but you come to work every day, put on your name tag and provide support, guidance and leadership to the thousands of colleagues who work across our region.” The post included photos of all of the regional store managers who were named and tagged except Cooper. At that time, he had not been at work since July 2022 due to anxiety.
Decades in the supermarket
Cooper, who has worked at Sainsbury’s since 1993, told the court he actually had “orange blood” running through his veins after decades of service to the retailer. In 2010 he became manager of the Pontypridd store near Cardiff and was in charge of the branch for more than a decade before taking a sick leave. When Cooper later saw the International Men’s Day post online, he said the omission caused huge distress. He told the court the incident had caused “unspeakable further damage” to his health and described the “anxiety” of having to respond to friends and colleagues who contacted him to ask if he had left the company.
Court: Omission related to his absence
The tribunal in Cardiff concluded that the decision to let Cooper leave the role stemmed from his manager’s “conscious thought process”. According to the panel, this means the treatment amounts to “unfavorable treatment due to disability”. Employment judge Rhian Brace said the court accepted Cooper’s evidence about how the incident affected him. “He provided evidence of statements that he felt excluded, humiliated and violated by the post and that he felt he had been left out by his absence,” the judge said. She added that as a senior store manager it was reasonable for him to feel humiliated in the situation, especially as there was nothing to stop his boss mentioning the post when they spoke to him the day before it appeared online.
Manager’s explanation
Houlihan argued that Cooper had deleted WhatsApp and said he did not want to be contacted while on leave, making him feel it was inappropriate to include him in posts or ask for photos. He also said he had no photo of Cooper to use. The court expressed sympathy with Houlihan’s position, but ultimately concluded that the decision still resulted in adverse treatment related to Cooper’s disability.
Legal claims and outcomes
After numerous discussions about returning to work, Cooper was fired in June 2023. He subsequently brought proceedings against Sainsbury’s, alleging disability discrimination, harassment, adverse treatment and unfair dismissal. The tribunal ruled in his favor on claims of disability-related harassment and adverse treatment arising out of disability, awarding him a total of £11,852 in compensation. However, his claims for disability discrimination and unfair dismissal were dismissed.
