Mr J Hislop v The Olympus Academy Trust — 2021

At the preliminary hearing on 4 March 2021, Employment Judge P Cadney held that Mr Hislop was disabled at the material time within section 6 Equality Act 2010. The tribunal accepted his evidence and Dr Higson's diagnosis that he had suffered PTSD and a major depressive episode since 2017, following a serious illness episode in which he believed he might die. It found that this was a continuous underlying condition with fluctuating severity, rather than separate time-limited episodes, and that it had a substantial and long-term adverse effect on normal day to day activities.

The respondent's application to dismiss the claims as having no reasonable prospect of success and/or to order a deposit was refused. On the unfair dismissal issue, the tribunal noted the respondent relied on admitted conduct involving harassment and class A drug use and said the merits question was whether dismissal fell within the range reasonably open to the employer. On the disability discrimination issue, including the section 15 claim, the tribunal held there was enough arguable merit to avoid strike out or a deposit order, and it made no separate order on the reasonable adjustments point relating to the disciplinary process. The substantive claims were not finally determined and directions were given for the final hearing.