Calling a colleague a 'weirdo' is discrimination and could allow them to claim thousands of pounds compensation, a tribunal has ruled.
An autistic children's centre staff member who complained he couldn't work with background music was asked in jest why he couldn't be 'ordinary and perfect like the rest of us'.
His boss, Malcolm King, also compared the worker's disorder to having a hangover after a 'good booze up' and said the requests he made to him at work were a 'pain in the a**e'.
Employee Nicholas James has now won more than £17,000 in compensation for disability discrimination and harassment.
Employment Judge Stephen Jenkins said: 'We considered that the references to accommodating [Mr James]'s requests as being a "pain in the a**e", to questioning why [Mr James] could not be "ordinary like the rest of us", and to [Mr James] being a "weirdo"...would clearly have been unwanted to [Mr James].
