Postman who was banned from starting work at 5am by Royal Mail wins £13,000 payout

A postman has received £13,000 compensation from the Royal Mail after he was banned from starting work at 5am.

Darren Williams had been working in Eccles, Greater Manchester, for decades in the early morning hours but was ordered to start later after returning from sick leave.

The court heard that from this time it helped Mr Williams with his anxiety as it meant he could avoid crowds and get home earlier to care for his wife, who has health problems of her own.

Mr. Williams was on leave due to illness from November 2022 to February 2023. When he returned, he was later told by Royal Mail to start a different walking route in order to reduce the risk of long-term sick leave.

His manager bombarded him with emails about changing shift hours while he was away from work, and he responded: ‘I DON’T WANT TO CHANGE MY HOURS.’

Mr Williams was diagnosed with autism and mental health issues in 2022 and so decided to sue Royal Mail for disability discrimination and his claim was upheld.

He had said he wanted to start as close to 5am as possible, but was told the time had been moved to 6.45am and 7.30am on Tuesdays.

She claimed in court that she felt harassed after receiving “constant emails and letters telling me I should change my working hours”.

An employment judge sitting in Manchester ruled that Mr Williams should be given time to adjust to his new programme.

It concluded that Royal Mail had not made reasonable adjustments for his disability, which is a form of disability discrimination, and should have allowed him to return to work at 5am in September 2023 before switching to 6am.

His claim for disability harassment was rejected.

The court eventually ruled that Mr Williams should be paid £12,925 in compensation for hurt feelings.

Mr Williams started working for Royal Mail when he was just 15, and over the decades he worked from 5am until 12.42pm, arriving at the delivery office at 5am and starting his delivery runs at around 9am. This long-standing routine helped with his anxiety.

However, it was not possible to completely reverse the schedule change, with the judge recommending Royal Mail. Write a letter to Mr Williams to confirm that the current start time is between 5am and 6am as starting at 6.45am would impact his mental health.

Employment Judge Rhodri McDonald said: ‘The mechanism [make reasonable adjustments for his disability] was in place and [Royal Mail] has not provided sufficient evidence that the difficulty of doing so is sufficient to make it unreasonable to have any other view.

‘We do not accept that the fact that there has been a recent revision would make it unreasonable to look again at the Eccles Delivery Marches and see whether a shorter walk could be created as a regulation to allow for it. [Mr Williams] having an earlier start time.

‘[Mr Williams] He actually suggested: [Royal Mail] The principle of public service enshrined in the USO was little respected and regularly violated.

‘So we think this would be a reasonable step’ [Royal Mail] is to use existing advanced systems to design a route. [Mr Williams] He was able to complete it in a shorter time than his colleagues.

‘To give permission [Mr Williams] It was necessary to start at 05:00 [Royal Mail] Redistributing 1 hour and 45 minutes of ‘excess’.

‘We don’t think it would be reasonable, but we think revising the Delivery Marches would be a reasonable step. [Mr Williams] He will start his shift at 06:00 and finish it at 13:42, leaving 45 minutes for other walks.’