Claimant v Orveon Global Ltd — 2024

The claimant worked for the respondent from 1 August 2023 until 2 February 2024 as a make-up artist. She brought disability discrimination complaints under sections 13, 15 and 20/21 Equality Act 2010, relying on gastritis and identifying two incidents: a probation-extension meeting on 19 January 2024 and her dismissal on 2 February 2024.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant suffered from gastritis from January 2023 and that it initially had a substantial adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities. It relied on her medical records, A&E attendances, endoscopy diagnosis, prescription history and her own evidence. It found that the picture changed after she saw a specialist in France in September 2023 and received new medication, with improvement reported to the respondent in mid-October 2023 and to her GP in November 2023.

The tribunal found that by mid-October/November 2023 the gastritis had been very largely resolved and no longer had the substantial adverse effect required by section 6. It placed weight on the absence of further reports of gastritis symptoms to the GP from November 2023 onwards, the lack of further prescriptions after November 2023, and the fact that the January 2024 fit note recording gastritis and fatigue did not, in context, prove a continuing substantial adverse effect.

The tribunal also found there was no evidence that the severe symptoms were likely to recur. It therefore concluded that the claimant had not shown that she was disabled at the material time for the alleged acts in January and February 2024, because the relevant substantial adverse effects lasted about nine to ten months and were not long-term within section 6 Equality Act 2010. The listed further case management hearing was vacated.