Mr Arnold - Counsel v Ms Darwin - Counsel — 2020

This was an open preliminary hearing on whether the claimant was a disabled person for Equality Act 2010 purposes. The pleaded claims included sex-related harassment, victimisation, disability harassment, direct disability discrimination, discrimination arising from disability and constructive unfair dismissal, but those merits issues were not decided in this judgment. The tribunal heard evidence from the claimant, her mother, her boyfriend and other lay witnesses, together with the jointly instructed psychiatric expert, Dr Das.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant had mixed anxiety and depressive disorder and found that the impairment had begun in around November/December 2017, but it was not persuaded that the statutory threshold was met at that stage or for most of 2018. It rejected the submission that the condition was a progressive condition for section 8 purposes, and found limited evidence that the claimant's day-to-day activities were substantially affected while she was still working full time, commuting, socialising and travelling, including a Caribbean holiday in August 2018. It therefore did not accept that she was disabled from November 2017.

The tribunal held that the position changed in late November 2018, after the grievance and the claimant's first GP attendance for anxiety and panic attacks, when she was signed off sick with stress at work causing generalised anxiety. From that point, the impairment substantially affected drafting emails and proposals, socialising reliably and travelling on public transport, including rush-hour travel to work, and the tribunal found the effect could well last at least 12 months given the ongoing workplace issues. It concluded that the claimant was a disabled person with effect from about 27 November 2018.