Disabled Pets at Home worker wins £18k after being forced to walk upstairs to use toilet

A disabled Pets at Home worker has won over £18,000 after she was forced to walk up three flights of stairs to the toilet because she was not told about the disabled toilet for five months.

Mihaela Bonciog - who suffered from chronic back pain and bladder issues - had to struggle up three flights of stairs for nearly half a year because bosses didn't tell her she had access to a ground-floor toilet.

Ms Bonciog told of the daily 'fear' she experienced that her colleagues would see her wet herself due to her incontinence episodes and said over time it became 'psychological suffering'.

She also wasn't given the ergonomic chair she asked for to help with her debilitating back pain for four months.

Ms Bonciog, who worked in a Pets at Home warehouse, only saw change when she resorted to emailing bosses saying "Does anyone care?"

At Cambridge Employment Tribunal, Ms Bonciog won her claims of a failure to make reasonable adjustments for her disability, which is a form of disability discrimination.

In February 2021, Ms Bonciog was diagnosed with lower back pain after lifting a heavy box and took a week off work because she was struggling to walk, but she did not think she needed any adjustments made.

She reported back pain several times for the next two years, but in August 2023 she informed her managers that she had been diagnosed as having a herniated disc in her back.

Ms Bonciog had an occupational health assessment carried out in October 2023, and this said that she needed adjustments to be made so that she had a workstation assessment to change her chair and that she have access to a closer bathroom for her urinary incontinence.

It also said that she should not lift anything heavy and she should not be asked to stand for long periods of time.

Ms Bonciog went on sick leave because of her back pain for a month starting in November 2023.

Despite following up about a workstation assessment, this was only carried out in May 2024 and an ergonomic chair was bought for Ms Bonciog.

She emailed saying: "No one has provided me a proper chair or a fob to the nearest toilet. Does anyone care?"

Pets at Home said that she had been granted permission to use the ground floor toilet, but they had not informed her that she could have access to a key fob to use that toilet.