Mrs S Board v EDF Energy plc — 2019

This was a preliminary hearing to determine whether Mrs S Board was a disabled person within section 6 Equality Act 2010 at the material times, identified as 27 January 2017 to 24 April 2018. The underlying claim form included unfair dismissal, discrimination arising from disability, failure to make reasonable adjustments, indirect disability discrimination and indirect sex discrimination, but those substantive claims were not decided in this judgment.

The tribunal accepted Mrs Board's evidence, supported by GP records and other medical material, that she suffered from sinusitis and migraine before and during the material period. It found that the GP notes did not fully record the regularity or seriousness of her symptoms, including because she did not attend the GP on many occasions when symptoms occurred and did not need medical certificates for some short absences.

The tribunal found that migraine and sinusitis, individually and in combination, caused pain and debilitating symptoms on a regular basis. It accepted evidence that Mrs Board avoided bright lights, reflective surfaces and pressure on her head, wore polarised sunglasses most days, and that full attacks could affect her speech, memory, ability to converse, ability to drive, and ability to do ordinary activities such as shopping, cooking, socialising and workplace activities.

Applying section 6 Equality Act 2010 and Schedule 1, the tribunal concluded that Mrs Board had physical impairments of migraine and sinusitis from 2014 until after the end of her employment in April 2018; that the impairments had a substantial adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities; that treatment and self-help reduced but did not remove that effect; and that the adverse effect was long-term or likely to recur. It therefore held that she was at all material times a disabled person within the meaning of section 6 Equality Act 2010. No remedy was determined in this judgment.