Mr P Mitchell v London Borough of Islington — 2018

The tribunal considered whether the claimant had stress, anxiety and/or depression during the material times, whether any effect on normal day-to-day activities was substantial, and whether it was long-term. The respondent accepted that the claimant suffered from stress, but disputed whether the statutory disability test was met.

The tribunal found that the claimant had a mental impairment between June 1999 and 2001, possibly into 2002, but treated that as a distinct earlier episode because there was a gap of at least 13 years in the medical records. It then found that from about March 2016 to May 2017 the claimant had stress/anxiety with effects on sport, eating, social activities, motivation and concentration, and that those effects were more than trivial and long-term.

For the period from May 2017 to dismissal on 7 September 2018, the tribunal found the claimant had not proved a substantial adverse effect on day-to-day activities. However, applying the recurrence provisions and disregarding the effect of counselling, it found that recurrence of substantial adverse effects could well occur as a result of a stress/anxiety reaction to work or life events. The tribunal therefore held that the claimant met the test for disability under the Equality Act 2010 during the material times.