A woman with dyslexia has won a disability discrimination case against her employer Starbucks after she was accused of falsifying documents.
A tribunal found Meseret Kumulchew had been discriminated against after making mistakes due to her difficulties with reading, writing and telling the time. She was given lesser duties at her branch in London and told to retrain, which left her feeling suicidal.
As a supervisor she was responsible for taking the temperature of fridges and water at specific times and entering the results in a duty roster.
She was accused of falsifying the documents after mistakenly entering wrong information
She took Starbucks to an employment tribunal alleging disability discrimination saying she had always made it known to her employer that she was dyslexic, which means she has difficulties with words and numbers, and has to be shown how to do tasks visually.
The tribunal found Starbucks had failed to make reasonable adjustments for Ms Kumulchew's disability and had discriminated against her because of the effects of her dyslexia.
It also found she had been victimised by her employer and there appeared to be little or no knowledge or understanding of equality issues.
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