Starbucks Employee Wins Disability Discrimination Case

A woman with dyslexia has won an employment tribunal case on grounds that she suffered disability discrimination from her former employer, the US coffee giant Starbucks, which accused her of fraud by falsifying documents.

Ms Meseret Kumulchew won her case after the tribunal ruled she was unfairly treated by the corporation and subsequently made to perform lesser duties and told to retrain certain areas of her role. The company ignored her claim that she had unintentionally made the mistakes due to her issues with reading and writing.

Ms Kumulchew held a supervisory role at Starbucks’ Clapham branch in South-West London where her work involved recording the temperature of fridges and water at specific times of the day. After making an error she was accused of deliberately entering false information which the company claimed constituted an act of fraud. Ms Kumulchew claims that Starbucks had always been aware of her disability and insists the company did not develop her skills to cater for her disability. She contacted her superiors on at least one occasion request help and support. In her message she explained:

‘I’ll struggle, but don’t worry, help me and I’ll get there in my own time. I’m not going to affect your business, because for every customer I’ll roll out the red carpet. I love my job. Giving them a coffee may not be a big deal, but I’m making their life, for the day at least, happy.”

The tribunal ruled that Starbucks should have adjusted their training appropriately for Ms Kumulchew’s situation and thus had discriminated against her dyslexia as a direct result of their disregard, which also violated the company’s own equality principals

The consequences of the fraud accusation deeply affected Ms Kumulchew. In a recent interview she stated “The name fraud itself shouldn’t exist for me. It’s quite serious. I nearly ended my life. But I had to think of my kids. I know I’m not a fraud. I just made a mistake.”

Exploring the issue of dyslexia discrimination, Dr Kate Saunders of the British Dyslexia Association explained “One in 10 people has dyslexia to some degree. Many people will not know they have dyslexia because it wasn’t identified at school. Many dyslexics are struggling in the work place with very high levels of anxiety because employers do not have the training or the awareness to make adjustments for them.”

In response to the recent ruling, Starbucks released a statement: “We are in ongoing discussions with this Starbucks employee around specific workplace support and we are not able to comment on a case that has not yet been completed.”

There will now be another tribunal hearing to judge whether Ms Kumulchew is entitled to compensat