Employee threatens bank with tribunal

3:05am Saturday 7th July 2007

ONE of the world's largest banks has been condemned by a North-East MP over its treatment of a disabled worker.

A slipped disk left 35-year-old Chris Rayner with a severe spinal injury that made walking a struggle and resulted in loss of feeling in his legs.

After battling with the condition for just over eight months, he finally returned to work to rebuild his life and career.

But as Stockton North MP Frank Cook told the House of Commons during an early day motion, he was treated with "callous disregard" by his employers at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

Mr Cook said Mr Rayner was "effectively demoted without warning or consultation" and was even told he was a "distraction to staff".

He added Mr Rayner, formerly a manager at the Darlington branch, had "a track record of exemplary competence, who returned to work through sheer determination and force of will".

Mr Cook said: "I condemn heartily the insensitive stance adopted by the senior management of the bank towards a victim of such grievous circumstance and a loyal employee."

He said that Mr Rayner - whose job was taken over by his former deputy - was also denied a disabled parking space next to the Blackwell Gate branch.

The married father-of-one, who lives in Darlington, first noticed a pain in his spine at a family barbecue in June 2005.

Doctors concluded that a slipped disk had severed part of his spinal chord, and surgeons performed an emergency operation.

He was warned that he only had a ten per cent chance of walking again - if he survived.

His mother, Mary Rayner, a senior lecturer in social policy at Teesside University, said yesterday: "The surgeons even told him to write letters to his wife and son in case he didn't pull through.

"But he made it, and when he got home he was completely focused on getting back to work so he could support his wife and son.

"But the company's disability policy is outrageous. He was so low. He thought he was on the scrapheap."

He was later diagnosed with depression by his GP.

Mr Rayner is to take RBS, which last year made £9.4bn profit, to an employment tribunal.

He said yesterday: "It has been a tough battle over the past two years dealing with my disability and it has been a real struggle for all of my family."

An RBS spokesman said: "RBS has an excellent track record on diversity in the workplace and received Remploy's Leading the Way Award for Excellence in disability management as well as gold standard awards from Opportunity Now and Race for Opportunity.

"As this matter is subject to an employment tribunal, it would be inappropriate for us to comment.