A severely disabled Bradford man was unfairly dismissed by the Jobcentre, a tribunal has ruled.

Today, an MP said the sacking of administration officer David Lambert, 36, sent out the wrong message to people on benefits who wanted to get back to work.

The tribunal heard Mr Lambert was regularly appearing late for his shifts at the branch in Eastbrook Court in Bradford because of his condition.

He was left severely disabled after an industrial accident in 1995 and used a wheelchair to get around at work.

His condition required him to take a cocktail of pain relief drugs overnight and meant he could not attend work in the morning until the side-effects had worn off, making it safe for him to drive.

He had a flexi-time contract, but he became substantially indebted in time owed. By the end of January last year, the deficit had increased to 41 hours. All but eight hours were written off, but eight days were converted to account for a share of Mr Lambert’s annual leave entitlement.

From February, he was told normal disciplinary rules would apply if his balance again went into deficit, and no allowance would be made for any difficulty he had in arriving late.

He was not allowed to stay late to make up his hours and the verdict report states that “he was, from his point of view, in an impossible situation”. In March, Mr Lambert took sick leave citing “stress”, but he was subsequently fired in June.

An employment tribunal heard before employment judge Colin Grazin in Leeds recorded a verdict of unfair dismissal. The judgement also finds the Jobcentre guilty of failing to make reasonable adjustments under the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

The verdict report says: “We do conclude that a reasonable employer, acting reasonably in all of the circumstances and taking account of the statutory criteria, would have thought very long and hard before dismissing a severely disabled person such as this claimant and would have concluded that dismissal was not an appropriate sanction in all of those circumstances.”

A remedy hearing to award Mr Lambert compensation is pending.

Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe, a former Minister for Trade and Industry, said: “I would have thought that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would have been more sympathetic to one of its own employees, particularly when the Government wants people on benefits to get back into work. What sort of message does this send out to other people who are on benefits and seeking work?”

Mr Lambert, of East Bowling, said: “This is the outcome I wanted. It wasn’t through any fault of my own that I was missing work, it was through my disability.”

A DWP spokesman said: “It is a priority for DWP to support disabled employees at work.”

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