Blind UK pop producer Robin Millar sues over lack of workplace support after surgery

Robin Millar, the blind pop producer who chaired the disability charity Scope, is taking legal action against the owners of the music business he co-founded, alleging they failed to provide proper workplace support after he underwent cancer surgery.

Millar, who produced hits for Sade, Boy George and Fine Young Cannibals, said his request for a support worker to assist with mobility challenges following the operation was denied.

Calling it an “extraordinarily painful step to take,” Millar said he wanted to show that even disabled people in senior executive roles can face “challenging workplace situations.”

“You hope for loyalty. You hope for humanity. You hope somebody says: ‘This matters. Let’s sit down together and work out what support looks like.’ Too often that does not happen,” Millar wrote in a LinkedIn post.

He said that with “great reluctance” he had issued proceedings in an employment tribunal “relating to my experiences within the business I cofounded and its current ownership. The claims include disability discrimination, victimisation and exclusion.”

“I have spent much of my life building inclusive businesses and advocating for disabled people, and I continue to believe something very simple: inclusion is not charity and it is not political correctness. It is good leadership, good culture and good business,” he added.

His instinct had always been to “minimise the personal impact of disability and simply keep going,” Millar said. But over time, through advocacy work and conversations with other disabled people, he had “come to feel a responsibility to speak more openly about these experiences, particularly because so many people fear the consequences of doing so themselves. That fear is real.”

Millar produced some of the biggest-selling artists of the 1980s and was involved in 44 number-one hits before co-founding Blue Raincoat Music in 2014. The company later merged with U.S.-based rights firm Reservoir Media, with Millar retained to co-run day-to-day operations.

A high-profile disability rights campaigner, Millar has chaired Scope since 2020 and has often argued for workplace inclusion, urging employers to do more to recruit and retain disabled people.

Last year Millar said he made informal and formal requests for workplace support while recovering from surgery but those requests were denied. At the time he decided not to pursue legal action. This week he said preliminary hearings in relation to the proceedings are scheduled for next week.

A Reservoir spokesperson said: “We are aware of Sir Robin Millar’s claims and strongly maintain that we have acted with integrity and in accordance with all relevant employment legislation and the Equality Act. We are confident the facts will support a favourable resolution. As these are ongoing tribunal proceedings, we have no further comment at this stage.”

Millar’s comments came as MPs warned that too many disabled people face a “hostile environment” in the workplace because employers are reluctant to make reasonable adjustments to help employees stay in work.

Debbie Abrahams, chair of the Commons work and pensions select committee, said: “A major reason disabled people are much less likely to be in work or stay in work is the lack of accessibility of workplaces, something many of us take for granted.”

“Although there is a legal duty to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled workers, in too many cases this isn’t happening, often out of not knowing, but also a lack of understanding of the different adjustments that could be made,” she added.

The committee’s report said that while some businesses do exemplary work for disabled workers, accessibility is all too often not seen as a priority. It noted that one in 10 disabled people leave work each year, compared with one in 20 non-disabled people.

The Cabinet Office was approached for comment.