Ocado has been ordered to pay £20,000 to an ex-employee who resigned after his fire safety warnings were ignored in one of its warehouses. Managers ignored technician Thomas Cooley’s warnings that cardboard materials and pallets were blocking fire exits and access to fire extinguishers at one of its sites. Instead, Cooley was marked out as a ‘complainer’ and is alleged to have been forced out of the business in a ‘witch hunt’.

Ocado has suffered a series of fires at distribution centres, costing the firm millions in lost sales. Its warehouse in Andover was destroyed in February 2019 after a fire broke out, whilst a blaze took hold of Ocado’s Erith warehouse in July last year.

Cooley told the Tribunal that he flagged a number of safety failings, including the safety switch on a conveyor belt being blocked, and being asked to clean under a lift that had not been disconnected from the power supply.

The judgement stated:

“He said the lift was very heavy and if it fell, whilst someone was cleaning underneath, it would cause injury. The claimant was told ‘not to throw his toys out the pram’ and to carry out the cleaning in any event, despite the fact he was not trained to do so. The claimant remained concerned about this, so he asked to speak to Wayne who was the manager of the site. He was told that Wayne would not wish to speak to him.”

Court documents claim Mr Cooley was subjected to a “witch hunt” for highlighting the problems and was given cleaning jobs and received abusive messages on the company radio system.

The judgement said:

“As a result of this the claimant’s mental health deteriorated, he suffered anxiety, nightmares and dreaded going to work. Ultimately, he had suicidal thoughts. He resigned his position due to his mental health and underwent counselling and took medication to assist him.”

The judge ruled his resignation amounted to constructive dismissal and ordered Ocado to pay Cooley £20,000. This included £14,299.88 for unfair dismissal, plus a further £6,000 for injury to feelings and £660 for treatment.

Ocado is asking for the claim to be reconsidered on the basis that it did not receive any paperwork related to the case. The judgement stated Ocado was sent the claim on 12 January and a further letter was sent on 18 March. Ocado did not file a response to the claim or appear at the Tribunal hearing to defend itself.

A spokesman for Ocado said:

“We did not receive notification of this claim at the time. As such, we are currently investigating and have applied for reconsideration. We await this decision and will not be commenting any further at this stage.”