Unpaid work | Employment lawyer raises concerns after autistic man loses voluntary Waitrose role following pay request

An employment lawyer has warned that Waitrose may have breached employment laws after a severely autistic man was reportedly let go from his unpaid volunteer role when his mother asked for him to be paid.

Jo Martin, employment lawyer at Bellevue Law, said she was “concerned that work that has evidently been of real value to Waitrose has been accepted from this individual for many years, without him being paid.” She added that his mother “is right to question the fact he hasn’t been paid, as this isn’t work experience in any true sense”.

Background: Four years of unpaid work

The man, 27-year-old Tom Boyd, has been diagnosed as autistic and has very limited communication abilities. According to The Times, he began helping out at the Waitrose branch in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester, in 2021. Over four years, he carried out more than 600 hours of unpaid work, emptying stock cages and stacking shelves alongside a support worker who kept him safe.

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Tom worked two days a week from 9.30am to 2pm and was well liked by staff, with some reportedly telling him “you work harder than some people who are paid to work here.”