Mr Downey (Counsel) For the v Respondent — 2024

The claimant was employed as a Band 4 Senior Patient Access Administrator and the respondent conceded disability, including long Covid with IBS, long Covid with chronic fatigue, and anxiety and depression. The dispute centred on working from home, attendance in the office, and the claimant's request to work from home three days a week. The Tribunal found that the latest date on which the claimant knew the respondent would not agree to that arrangement was 20 January 2023, when the appeal outcome was sent, so the reasonable adjustments claim was out of time. It was not just and equitable to extend time because the claimant had not adequately explained the delay and, on the Tribunal's findings, had access to legal advice during the relevant period.

If it had been in time, the Tribunal still rejected the reasonable adjustments claim on the merits. It found that the relevant PCP was a requirement for employees to attend the office at least three days a week, and that this put the claimant at a substantial disadvantage because travelling to work and working in the office were difficult in light of his IBS symptoms. However, the Tribunal held that reducing attendance from three days in the office to two was not a reasonable further adjustment. It found the respondent had already made adjustments including untimed toilet breaks, a ten-minute hourly break, and time off for medical appointments, and that further homeworking would materially undermine team functioning, supervision, training, and service delivery because much of the claimant's role depended on real-time on-site work.

The harassment claim related to Ms Chakraborty's email of 5 May 2023 after the claimant had been away from his desk for a prolonged toilet break. The Tribunal accepted that the email related to disability because it referred to the claimant's toilet breaks and related issues, but found it was not berating in tone and did not have the purpose or effect of violating dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. It also found it was reasonable for Ms Chakraborty to raise the issue in order to manage the claimant's breaks and the department's work, and therefore the harassment claim was not upheld.