Tom Boyd, 27, has been volunteering at the supermarket for four years but his mum says they’ve now stopped him from working there after she asked if he could be paid for his efforts
A man with autism who volunteered at Waitrose for four years has been stripped of his role after his mother enquired about the possibility of paid employment. Tom Boyd, 27, spent his time filling shelves and clearing stock cages at the supermarket’s Cheadle Hulme branch in Greater Manchester, always working alongside a support worker.
Starting in 2021, he has clocked up over 600 hours of unpaid labour, putting in two shifts weekly from 9.30am to 2pm. Colleagues had grown fond of Tom’s dedication, with staff remarking: “you work harder than some people who are paid to work here”.
However, his mother Frances revealed that difficulties emerged when she and his support team approached Waitrose about the prospect of offering him some paid hours in recognition of “the time, effort and heart” he had devoted to the store, reports the Mirror.
The local branch reportedly escalated the matter to Waitrose’s head office, who became troubled by the extent of Tom’s unpaid contributions and decided he couldn’t continue until the matter was sorted.
This has left Tom unable to work for two months, with his mother keeping the real reason from him to spare his feelings.
“We told him the shop is being cleaned. We weren’t after 40 or 30 or 20 hours. We said we’d accept four, three or even two – just something,” she explained to The Times. Frances, who works for a charity, shared that Tom, despite having “very limited” language skills, enjoyed his time at Waitrose where he was assisted by support workers whenever he struggled to interact with customers.
She questioned, “He’s been doing it for four years, so why can’t that continue?”.
Frances believes the best outcome would be for Tom to return to the store in “some capacity”. She praised the staff at the store as “amazing”, pointing out that the issue lies with the head office, which she criticised as a “cold, harsh, big corporate company” that fails to see Tom as an individual.
In a social media post, Frances expressed her frustration: “They told us he couldn’t be offered a job because he couldn’t ‘do the full role’ – yet we know for a fact there are people in the same store being paid, and they aren’t able to do every part of the job either.”
Questioning the fairness of the situation, she added, “After everything he’s done, there was no apology, no thanks, and no recognition for his commitment. Just silence.”
A spokesperson for Waitrose responded to The Times, stating, “We work hard to be an inclusive employer. As part of this, we partner with a number of charities, including to provide work experience, and are well experienced in making reasonable adjustments to help people succeed at work. We are sorry to hear of Tom’s story, and whilst we cannot comment on individual cases, we are investigating as a priority.”
Waitrose has yet to comment.
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