In person For the v Mr P Maratos, Litigation Executive — 2020

This was a preliminary hearing in Ms Tracey Riches’s claim against Nicola Lloyd t/a Copper Joe’s Cafe. The issue for determination was whether the claimant was a disabled person at the material times and, if so, whether the respondent knew or ought reasonably to have known of that disability. The tribunal recorded that the claimant’s wider case included disability discrimination, breach of contract and holiday pay, but this judgment dealt only with the disability discrimination issue.

The claimant relied on depression as a mental impairment and said it had affected her since her early 20s. She gave evidence that she sometimes felt overwhelmed, that the condition could affect her thinking, vision, hearing and mood, and that on one occasion in about September 2018 she mentioned feeling depressed and thinking of leaving work. The tribunal also considered her GP records, which showed treatment for depression only between September 2008 and February 2009, with no later diagnosis or treatment for depression and no GP attendance for depression until after the dismissal, when perimenopause was diagnosed in November 2019.

Applying the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability, the tribunal accepted that depression can amount to a mental impairment and can recur, but it was not satisfied that the claimant’s effects were substantial or long-term. The tribunal noted her evidence that most days she could function relatively normally, that nobody would know, and that stopping alcohol in March 2019 had made a huge difference to her mental health. It held that she had not discharged the burden of proving that she was a disabled person at the material time.

The tribunal also found that the respondent did not know, and could not reasonably have been expected to know, that the claimant was disabled. Although the claimant had mentioned feeling depressed on one occasion, she had no sickness absence for that reason and had not provided GP certification indicating a long-term mental impairment. Because the claimant was not found to be disabled and the respondent lacked the necessary knowledge in any event, the tribunal held that the section 15 Equality Act claim could not be made out and dismissed the disability discrimination claim.