A FORMER butler has received a substantial sum in compensation after he took an Oxford college to a tribunal.

Exeter College made the undisclosed out-of-court settlement after an employment tribunal found that Stephen Slade had been unfairly dismissed, and discriminated against because of his disability.

Mr Slade, who lives in Cowley, had been off with depression when he was sacked by e-mail the day before he had arranged to return to his job.

The tribunal said the way he had been dismissed had been unfair, and that he had suffered disability discrimination because he had been sacked because of his depression.

Exeter College was also told it had discriminated against Mr Slade by refusing a reasonable request for a change in his working hours.

Mr Slade had asked to do a straight eight-hour shift, rather than the split shift which ran from 8am till noon, and 4pm until 8pm, with a four-hour break in the middle.

He said: "If I went home I had about two hours at home and had to go back in. When I was head butler I felt obliged to work through the split because I had so much to do, so I was effectively working 12 hours a day."

Mr Slade, who joined Exeter College in 1996, first took time off work in January 2002.

The 56-year-old believes his depression had been brought on by stress, after he worked the busy Christmas period without an assistant, sometimes working an 80-hour week.

For the next two years, Mr Slade returned to work a number of times, but the depression meant he still had long periods of time off work.

In 2004, after five months off sick, he arranged to return to work on November 11, but on November 10 he was dismissed by e-mail.

Mr Slade, who is still receiving treatment for depression but wants to return to employment, said: "I haven't actually got anything against Exeter college. I enjoyed a lot of my time there. Certain individuals maybe didn't help, but in general I was well looked after."

He added: "I have got sympathy for their position. There were protracted periods when they did not have a butler. But the tribunal made it clear, I had agreed to return and they were unreasonable in their dismissal."

Although Mr Slade is happy he has won his case and received compensation more than a year after he was sacked, it has not been an easy process.

He said: "There were times when I wanted to call it quits. Their evidence comes through and you read it and some of it makes very difficult reading, to have all your imperfections in black and white, some of which are true and some of which aren't."

But he added: "I think it needs to be done, because I think organisations need to be taken to account when they're big and powerful. It was very difficult to take on the fourth oldest college in the world. Had I known what it would take out of me I wouldn't have done it."

Exeter College would not comment.