Mr S Smith v New Wave Capital Limited — 2023

The Claimant started work with the Respondent as a Senior Collections Officer on 16 May 2022 on a six-month probationary period. The Tribunal accepted that he had complex PTSD and depression, and that his nephew was murdered in late May 2022. It found that the earliest disclosure of PTSD and depression to a manager was on 7 July 2022, when he told Dan Nettle, and that the Respondent could reasonably have been expected to know of the disability from that date. The Tribunal also found that the Claimant’s requests for unpaid leave and later reduced hours were driven mainly by unhappiness about his role, the absence of the Team Leader progression he had expected, and the lack of a manager, rather than by disability.

The reasonable-adjustments and indirect-discrimination claims all failed. The Tribunal accepted that there was a PCP requiring full-time hours and another about a rota of two late shifts per week, but it was not satisfied that these put the Claimant at a substantial disadvantage because of disability. It did not find PCPs of refusing unpaid leave after personal trauma, not disclosing personal information to colleagues, failing to give advance notice of meetings, or failing to follow grievance recommendations. It also found that the flexible-working and unpaid-leave PCPs had not actually been applied to him, because discussion was deferred until Olivia Roberts returned and, after he withdrew his grievance, there was no further application of those policies.

On direct disability discrimination, the Tribunal did not accept that Steffi Carter shouted at the Claimant. It accepted that Nazir shouted in the course of a work disagreement, but not because of disability. The complaint that the Claimant was placed on a PiP after requesting flexible working raised an inference because of timing, but the Respondent rebutted that inference by showing that it was trying to support him while concerned about performance and his bereavement. The discrimination-arising-from-disability claim, based on dismissal on 22 September 2022, also failed: the Tribunal accepted that the dismissal followed concern about a customer call, and it was not persuaded that the poor call arose from disability symptoms rather than dissatisfaction with his role and prospects. The claims were in time because the ET1 was presented on 16 February 2023 after early conciliation ended on 19 January 2023, and no monetary award was made.