Mr. S. Martins, legal representative, The Employment Law Service. For the v Ms J. Hale, solicitor. OPEN PRELIMINARY HEARING ( — 2018

At the open preliminary hearing on 28 September 2018, Employment Judge Mason considered whether the claimant was disabled at the material time for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. The claimant had been employed as a Cluster Leader from 5 October 2015 until his resignation on 6 December 2017. By the hearing, he was relying only on asthma and migraines; bronchitis and depression were not relied on. The tribunal treated the material time as 30 October 2015 to 6 December 2017, and the open issue on the respondent's knowledge would only matter if disability were established.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant had asthma for many years and that he suffered from occasional migraines, and it found both were long-term physical impairments. It also accepted that asthma had some adverse effect on day-to-day activities, including walking and sleeping, and that without medication he would be short of breath. However, it did not accept that migraines affected his day-to-day activities. The tribunal placed weight on the medical records, which showed very limited limitation from asthma between 2007 and 2018, and on the fact that the GP letters did not specify the extent of any impact on general day-to-day activities.

Applying section 6 and Schedule 1 of the Equality Act 2010 and the four-stage approach in Goodwin v Patent Office, the tribunal held that although asthma had an adverse effect, that effect was not substantial, meaning more than minor or trivial. It found that the claimant had been given several opportunities to explain how his activities were affected but had not done so with sufficient detail or supporting evidence. On that basis, the claimant was not disabled at the material time.

Because the claimant was found not to be disabled, the tribunal said it was unnecessary to decide the respondent's knowledge. All disability discrimination complaints were dismissed at this preliminary stage. The claimant's constructive unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal claims were stated to proceed to the final hearing listed for December 2018, and no monetary remedy was determined in this judgment.