Bread-eating chef vindicated

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LONDON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- The head chef at a London hospital, fired for eating a piece of garlic bread destined for the trash, has been awarded $41,000 in compensation.

London's Evening Standard reported Tuesday an employment tribunal judge ruled Hamid Elkhiyari was entitled to the payment for his dismissal by Kingston Hospital management last February

While his bosses had labeled him a thief, Elkhiyari, 53, said he only ate the morsel because he had been unable to take a proper lunch break during a record snowfall that kept many co-workers from getting to work.

"It is ridiculous," the chef said. "Service had finished so everything was being cleaned away to throw into the bin. So I had a piece of garlic bread."

Six days later, he was fired.

Elkhiyari went to court, charging racial discrimination by hospital contractor ISF Mediclean and the tribunal agreed.