Miss K Lake v Keys Child Care (holdings) Limited — 2023

The claimant brought claims of disability discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination and constructive (unfair) dismissal. This hearing was a preliminary hearing and was limited to the question whether the claimant was disabled within the meaning of section 6 Equality Act 2010 during the relevant period, which the tribunal identified as running from 1 October 2021 to the claimant’s resignation in January 2022. No final decision was made at this hearing on the merits of the substantive claims.

The tribunal accepted the claimant’s evidence and the medical records that she had longstanding anxiety and depression, including a June 2020 overdose, treatment with sertraline and later escitalopram, and later GP records noting increased anxiety after suspension from work in October 2021. It also took account of the wellbeing coach evidence describing sleeplessness, poor focus, tearfulness, poor diet and increasing depression symptoms. The tribunal found that the condition affected day-to-day activities including sleeping, doing household tasks, going shopping, taking her daughter to the park, socialising and regulating emotions.

Applying the statutory definition and the four-stage approach in Sullivan v Bury Street Capital Limited, the tribunal held that the effects were more than minor or trivial and that the long-term condition was met because the impairment had already had a substantial adverse effect from June 2020 onwards. It accepted that medication helped, but found that, but for sertraline or escitalopram, the claimant would likely have had the same effects on a fluctuating basis from June 2020 onwards. The tribunal rejected the suggestion that the condition was merely a reaction to adverse life events, noting that it pre-dated her mother’s cancer diagnosis and that the overdose and diagnosis were not tied to a specific trigger. It therefore held that the claimant was disabled for Equality Act purposes at the relevant times. No remedy was awarded in this judgment.