Mr D Nicastro v Openreach Ltd — 2020

The respondent conceded that the claimant was disabled by reason of a back condition. The issue was whether the respondent's practice of requiring employees in the claimant's patch to work 12 Saturdays a year, applied to the claimant from 7 November 2019, put him at a substantial disadvantage by preventing two consecutive days off and impeding recovery from the working week.

The tribunal reviewed the history of the claimant's roster arrangements, disability passports, P&D roster applications, medical material and the respondent's handling of the 2019 request. It noted that previous adjustments had provided a Monday to Friday pattern with weekends off, and that managers on the ground had supported the claimant's 2019 request, but the Forum declined it after seeking evidence about Saturday physiotherapy and receiving no further information.

The tribunal dismissed the claim because, during the relevant period when the PCP was applied, the claimant was not undertaking physically demanding field duties but was doing limited intermittent desk-based work from home. It found that on the three Saturdays worked between March and June 2020 he could still do rehabilitation exercises, had not shown an impact on his back condition, and had not shown that required physiotherapy was prevented. The respondent's £500 costs application was refused because the tribunal was not satisfied that a costs order was in the interests of justice.