A Sainsbury’s manager who sued his boss for disability discrimination after he was left out of a social media post celebrating International Men’s Day has been awarded £11,852.
Darren Cooper had been on a prolonged period of sick leave for anxiety when the regional director of his store posted on LinkedIn celebrating the male managers who ‘show up for work each day, put on a name badge on, and provide leadership for thousands of colleagues’.
Mr Cooper, who had worked at the supermarket since his teens and claimed he had ‘orange blood’, said he had been ‘humiliated’ by being left out.
The judge at his employment tribunal in Cardiff agreed that he was in line for compensation after he was left feeling ‘violated’ by the exclusion.
As a result he was awarded £7,500 compensation for injury to feelings, £2,500 compensation for personal injury and a further £1,852.08 in interest.
An employment tribunal in Cardiff previously heard that Mr Cooper started working for Sainsbury’s in 1993 on a part-time basis while he was at school.
After graduating from university, he took up a full-time post at the supermarket and in 2010 he was promoted to manager of the store in Pontypridd, South Wales. However, in June 2022 he went on sick leave due to anxiety.
On International Men’s Day, November 19 that year, Regional Director Matt Hourihan posted on Yammer – Sainsbury’s internal message board – and LinkedIn to celebrate the occasion.
Darren Cooper (pictured) had been on a prolonged period of sick leave for anxiety when the regional director of his store made the post on LinkedIn
‘I’d like to take a moment to celebrate the male leaders in my team and say thank you for all that you do to help make our stores,’ part of the post read.
Mr Hourihan, who managed some 5,000 members of staff and has since been promoted to head of customer service, thanked the male managers who ‘show up for work each day, put on a name badge and provide support, guidance and leadership to the thousands of colleagues that work in our region’.
In both posts, the regional director included photos of each store manager in his region and tagged them, but did not name or tag Mr Cooper.
The store manager’s wife told him about the post and he told the tribunal that this caused ‘untold further damage’ to his health.
Mr Cooper said it created ‘angst’ for him as he had to field questions from friends, colleagues, and LinkedIn connections – who all asked him if he had left Sainsbury’s.
Employment Judge Rhian Brace said: ‘He gave statement evidence that he felt excluded, humiliated and violated by the post and that he had felt he had been excluded because he was absent.’
The regional director was questioned on his actions in relation to the post.
Mr Hourihan said that Mr Cooper – who had been off work for 16 weeks at this point – had deleted his WhatsApp account and had asked not to be not contacted and to be left alone to recover.
For this reason, he did not want to bombard the store manager with hundreds of alerts and felt as if that was the last thing Mr Cooper would have wanted.
Mr Hourihan also did not have a photograph of the store manager and did not consider it appropriate to ask for one.
On November 22, Mr Cooper submitted a complaint – made up of 48 ‘discrete concerns’ – against his boss.
Of this number, the investigator partially upheld one in relation to the LinkedIn post – but said it did not breach Sainsbury’s Social Media Policy and any impact on Mr Cooper had been unintended.
The judge at his employment tribunal in Cardiff agreed the manager (right) was in line for compensation after he was left feeling ‘violated’ by the exclusion
Mr Cooper appealed the result of the investigation but this was dismissed.
After lengthy exchanges regarding his return to work date, the store manager was dismissed in June 2023.
The store manager sued for disability discrimination relating to his anxiety, harassment and unfair dismissal.
Upholding his harassment and unfavourable treatment claims in relation to the LinkedIn post, EJ Brace said: ‘[Mr Cooper] was a valued and long serving store manager at Sainsbury’s.’
‘He had Orange Blood as it was monikered, where he had worked from Sainsbury’s since a pupil and still at school.’
The panel concluded that failing to include the store manager on the LinkedIn post was ‘unwanted conduct’ and his ‘exclusion from the posts was related to his disability’.
It was noted that Mr Hourihan purposely left him out of the post as to prevent Mr Cooper from receiving any unwanted contact during his time off – and he also considered it inappropriate to ask him for a photograph.
‘Whilst the Tribunal again has sympathy with [Mr Hourihan’s] position, we nonetheless accepted [Mr Cooper’s] evidence that having people contact him caused him to feel excluded,’ EJ Brace said.
‘It was reasonable for [Mr Cooper], as a senior Store Manager, in those circumstances for him to feel humiliated as a result, particularly when there had been nothing to have prevented Matt Hourihan from telling [Mr Cooper] of the post when speaking to him the day prior.’
The judge added in the court’s conclusion that Mr Cooper had not received any apology and that the post remained online for 42 days despite concerns.
