In person For the v Ms C Hammond, Human Resources Officer — 2020

This reserved judgment dealt only with the preliminary issue of disability status in Mrs Jaroszczak’s claim against Southampton Apartment Hotels Ltd. She worked for the respondent from September 2018 to September 2019 as a Room Maker Manager. The tribunal heard her evidence, her emails to management, GP letters, fit notes and other medical records, and considered whether back pain, endometriosis and stress/anxiety/depression met the section 6 Equality Act 2010 definition.

On the mental impairment, the tribunal accepted that by 28 May 2019 Mrs Jaroszczak was suffering from stress and anxiety with symptoms of depression, but it found the evidence of substantial adverse effect was not enough at that date. It concluded that by 1 July 2019 the effects had become substantial, including sleep disturbance, tearfulness, panic attacks and later needing twice as long to do everyday tasks, and that the impairment was likely to last more than 12 months. It therefore held that she was disabled by reason of a mental impairment from 1 July 2019.

On the physical impairment, the tribunal found that Mrs Jaroszczak had back pain and endometriosis throughout her employment, but that the relevant substantial adverse effect first appeared on 6 May 2019. The decisive evidence was her account that she stopped learning to drive because she could not sit without pain, together with the tribunal’s acceptance that difficulty using transport because of pain can amount to a substantial adverse effect. It did not find that endometriosis caused any separate adverse effect beyond the back pain.

No liability findings or remedy were made on the underlying unfair dismissal, race discrimination or disability discrimination claims in this judgment. The outcome was confined to the disability-status issue, which the tribunal determined for the purposes of the case.