A UNION worker who suffered a severe spinal injury was unfairly dismissed from his role as branch secretary.

GMB branch secretary Stephen Forbes started the claim against the union after being dismissed in August 2017, about 17 months after being seriously injured.

Mr Forbes, who was secretary of the Cumbria branch, had worked for the organisation, which is a general union fighting to improve members’ pay and condition, since 2000.

He was injured in February 2016 after he slipped while getting out of a vehicle, causing him to lose feeling in his arms and legs, and subsequently suffered a stroke.

Though he had made some progress and had offered to do a trial to see if he could return to work, he was dismissed the following August, following a series of sickness absence review meetings with Joan Anderson, a senior organiser for GMB Northern region who is also the partner of regional secretary Billy Coates, and Bill Moran, a regional health and safety and human resources officer.

The employment tribunal judgement found he had shown a will to return to work and had been dismissed unfairly, and upheld a complaint of discrimination arising from disability.

The tribunal had heard that Ms Anderson thought his work to recruit new members, which involved working in a number of workplaces, including shipyards, was high risk and presented a “major health concern”.

Daniel Dyal, GMB’s lawyer said the union believed Mr Forbes was unfit for work and interim cover arrangements were unsustainable.

Employment judge Slater, in his judgement, published earlier this month, said: “We do not doubt the sincerity of the concerns held by Ms Anderson and Mr Moran but consider that they made assumptions about what the claimant would have difficulty with and consequent risks, without having proper medical information on which to base that assessment.”

The judge dismissed claims that Mr Forbes had been fired because he was disabled but said the complaint of discrimination arising from a disability was well founded.

The complaint of unfair dismissal was also well founded.

Judge Slater added GMB had not failed in its duty to make reasonable adjustments to help him return to work.

Jennie Ferrario, on behalf of Mr Forbes, had also claimed an internal appeals process had been a “rubber stamping” exercise and had been unfair because the GMB officer was being asked to consider a decision made by his bosses’ partner.

A remedy hearing is set to take place next April.

GMB did not respond to the Northern Echo’s requests for a comment.