A vegan Subway employee has won a $15,000 harassment claim after she says she was taunted by her employer.
Per the Metro, Kady Reilly, who worked at the Subway in the petrol station shop in Glasgow, Scotland, revealed that her boss, Himanshu Lahar, would make demeaning comments about her appearance.
The panel also discovered that when Reilly would refuse to eat the food she was allergic to, her boss would ridicule her by saying: "NASA should send you back to Mars".
The vegan employee added that Lahar would wave meat under her nose and say: "Go on, eat it, what could happen?", telling her to "eat like a man, walk like a bull".
Reilly was fired from the store after contacting Environmental Health about her concerns surrounding the food chain which she says included serving dairy cheese to vegan customers when they ran out of plant-based alternatives.
She then took the owners of the franchise, RT Management Bridgeton Limited, to a tribunal that found in her favor. They found that her boss’s comments went against the Equality Act because veganism is classed as a philosophical belief.
The panel heard that Reilly carried an Epi-pen and when she told Lahar about her veganism, he made derogatory remarks at her.
"She described being 'shocked' at Himanshu Lahar's flippant attitude towards allergies and the possible consequences of a person consuming a substance which they had a severe allergic reaction to," the hearing was told.
Reilly said that she had "never been disrespected in a work environment before" and "described the process which she was going through at the time to obtain a diagnosis as 'very stressful'".
"[She] described her employment with the respondent as 'a really poor experience' and 'very stressful'," the hearing added.
Additionally, Reilly told the hearing she would have to throw her used sanitary products in the bin at the petrol station as there was no sanitary bin provided in the staff toilet, which left her feeling "humiliated".
The panel heard that when she expressed her concerns to Lahar regarding sanitary bins, he told her that she was the only woman "of menstruating age" who used the toilet and simply told her to use the bin in the kitchen.
Employment Judge Claire McManus issued a statement about Reilly and said: "We were satisfied on the basis of [her] evidence that her belief in veganism perpetrates her life and how she lives her life. [She] showed that her practice of veganism is a belief intrinsic to her sense of identity."
"We were satisfied that for [Miss Reilly], veganism is a philosophical belief within the meaning of section 10 of the Equality Act 2010 and is a protected characteristic for her," McManus added.
Reilly is now due to receive over $15,000.
