Doncaster family is taking legal advice after disabled shopworker lost the supermarket job he loved.

A Doncaster family is taking legal advice after a disabled shopworker lost the supermarket job he loved.
Michael Cocks, of Carcroft, pictured. Picture: Marie Caley NDFP-03-08-19-Cocks-2Michael Cocks, of Carcroft, pictured. Picture: Marie Caley NDFP-03-08-19-Cocks-2
Michael Cocks, of Carcroft, pictured. Picture: Marie Caley NDFP-03-08-19-Cocks-2

Michael Cocks was left unconscious for nine weeks at the age of four, following a collision in the road which left him with memory problems and impaired speech. He had to learn to walk and talk again.

He bounced back enough that he was initially given a job at Morrisons through a Government agency, Remploy, with that job later becoming a permanent job five years later.

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But now he lost his job. He claims he is now longer able to do the work he had at the York Road store moving trolleys after he was injured at work, when a 4x4 vehicle struck the trolleys, knocking him back into a post.

He was off for three weeks sick after the incident at the store where he has worked for 19 years, and took painkillers.

After the injury, Michael, aged 41, from Carcroft, says he does not feel he is able to push trolleys any more because he could no longer move them up slopes.

He says he was given a number of medical assessments, and expressed an interest in working at the store bakery, but a job there was not offered to him.

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He had spent some time inside the store doing jobs including removing cardboard from shelves, but that work was not permanent.

Michael's mum, Joan, said she was disgusted with the way her son had been treated. She said: "I think he has been treated shamefully. He has done so well to get where he has after his accident as a child and doesn't deserve this. He just needs extra training and help. He has always enjoyed working, and he's not even been given three months notice."

She said the family was now taking legal advice through the union USDAW. They were hoping for an appeal, and if that is not successful, an industrial tribunal.

The family says Michael had previously worked in the shop's warehouse and had a fork lift truck licence.

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Dad Arthur said: "It's unbelievable. He came in tears after being told there was no job for him."

Morrisons say Michael was offered his previous job back after an assessment concluded he was able to do that job.

Michael was struck by a car on Markham Avenue, Carcroft, as a four-year-old, said Joan.

She said: "He was just going across for ice cream, and he was thrown 30ft in the air. It left him unconcious for nine weeks.

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"He went through all that and was left with short term memory problems. It has made a big difference to him. His right hand side was injured and he had to learn to walk and talk again."

He went to Anchorage special school, and later did vocational access training at Doncaster College.

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