A Valleys baker who'd worked at the same branch of Morrisons for almost 20 years has claimed he was dismissed from his job whilst recovering at home from cancer surgery. Wayne Studley had long been a familiar face at the supermarket chain's Ebbw Vale store when he was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in August 2021.
The 63-year-old from Tredegar, who has been in the bakery trade ever since he was a teenager, said he started noticing something was wrong when he developed problems swallowing last summer. And, after being told the shock news, he then underwent a barrage of tests and treatment.
This included gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy, before a lengthy operation to remove his entire gullet - the long tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach - took place in January this year. However, during that period Wayne said he was repeatedly called by his employers to ask when they could expect him back at work, the first of which came before his surgery had even been scheduled.
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Then, in July - a month before his year-long doctor's note was due to elapse - Wayne was called to a meeting at his local branch. There he was told by managers that they had decided to "terminate his employment."
"I was initially having trouble eating so I went to my GP and ended up having a camera put down my throat to see what the problem was," said Wayne, who'd recently been off work for several weeks with plantar fasciitis, a painful burning sensation in the bottom of his feet. "I thought it was a fairly routine procedure but then got told I had cancer - I was gutted."
The Blaenau Gwent grandad spent the next six months making daily visits to Velindre Hospital in Whitchurch, Cardiff, before finally going under the knife. "They took out most of my oesophagus, along with around 30 or so lymph nodes, before relocating my stomach further up my body in order to reattach it to what was left of my food pipe.
"As a result I can only eat little portions at a time and have actually lost about four stone since then." But, while he was recuperating his employers kept "badgering him."
"Then, in July this year, we were eventually called to what we thought it was just a routine catch-up but which turned out to be a 'capability meeting'," said Wayne's wife Tina, 63, a local kitchen assistant.
"At that point Wayne had not long contracted pneumonia, with which he as twice hospitalised. They were asking him questions and he was struggling to breathe, let alone talk. At one point he even broke down in tears and told me that he felt harassed."
Tina added that Wayne's bosses then asked if there were any other store jobs he felt he could do. "They mentioned 'light duties', but what light duties are there in a supermarket? Wayne couldn't even pick up a brush at that point.
"We're not talking about having a tooth pulled here - he'd had cancer and a major operation. Eventually they told us that they'd made a decision and had 'regretfully' decided to terminate Wayne's employment.'
"I mean, should they even do that while he was still off sick with a doctor's note? I told them they hadn't given him enough time to get better," said Tina.
The couple later appealed online against the decision only to be told they'd been unsuccessful. "They also only gave him 12 weeks pay in lieu of notice - that's £3,800 for 19 and a half years service.
"By the time he'd paid tax and pension contributions on that it worked out to £2,600 - that's nothing." She added that Wayne wouldn't go back to work there now "even if he wanted to."
"We just want to make sure that this sort of thing can't happen to other members of staff who might fall seriously ill, " said Tina. "God knows there's enough to worry about when you're undergoing cancer treatment - the last thing you want on your mind is whether you'll still have a job at the end of it."
A spokesperson for Morrisons said: "We have supported Wayne throughout his illness and we did all we could - working with our occupational health team to try to facilitate a possible return to work for him. But, unfortunately, this has not been possible."
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