A flatulent barrister who tried to sue Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has won £135 000 after his working from home request was denied, with the prosecutor ruling that asking him to stop passing wind “was not only embarrassing, it violated his dignity”.
However, an employment tribunal said the request by his colleague was reasonable – given the size of the office that they shared and the repetitive nature of the flatulence.
Tarique Mohammed said he couldn’t help his flatulence because it was caused by medication he was taking for a heart condition.
The Telegraph reports that the flatulence allegation was part of a series of disability-related claims brought by Mohammed against his employers after he suffered a heart attack.
He accused co-workers and bosses of discriminating against him by deliberately throwing his water bottles away when he left them on a shared desk, asking him to work one day a week nearly 100km away, and failing to pay for his barrister’s practising certificate while he was on sick leave.
These claims – along with the flatulence complaint – were thrown out by the employment tribunal, but the barrister has now been awarded £135 862 for successful claims against the CPS.
The CPS accepted it had treated him unfairly by not allowing him to work from home two days a week, leave work at 4pm to help him manage his condition and by removing him from court duties.
The hearing was told that Mohammed started sharing a small office with another prosecutor, Paul McGorry, in 2016.
“After two or three days of [Mohammed] working together, Mr McGorry noticed that [he] had flatulence,” the tribunal was told.
“There were repeated incidents of flatulence and … [Mohammed] said it was due to his medication. McGorry asked if he could step outside to do it. Mohammed] said that he could not.”
Employment Judge Emma Hawksworth said: “Many of the incidents about which [he] complains were unrelated to his disability … or were caused or aggravated by [him] over-reacting.
Of the flatulence incident, Hawksworth added: “It was not an unreasonable question, when there had been repeated incidents of flatulence in a small office.”
The tribunal found the CPS was guilty of disability discrimination and failing to make reasonable adjustments for refusing his requests, ignoring recommendations from Occupational Health advisors and removing him from court duties.