Mr G Plummer v Education for the 21st Century Heard — 2021

The tribunal found that Mr Plummer had a mental impairment consisting of severe symptoms of anxiety. It accepted that the condition caused confusion when stressed, a preference to keep busy, insomnia and panic attacks, and held that those effects were long term, so he was disabled for the purposes of s.6 Equality Act 2010. It also found that Education for the 21st Century did not know he was disabled at the material time: at interview he did not disclose a disability, he later said he had previously suffered from depression but no longer did so, and his reference to anxiety when flying was not enough to put the respondent on notice.

The direct disability discrimination claim failed because the tribunal accepted Ms Codling’s evidence that Mr Plummer was dismissed for performance and conduct reasons, not because of disability. Those reasons included lack of preparation for handover day, difficulty with the fire alarm practice, poor management of staff, failure to induct cleaning staff, failure to prepare holiday handover notes, inappropriate language, inappropriate text messages and incomplete defect lists. The tribunal held that these reasons had nothing whatsoever to do with his anxiety and were the effective cause of the dismissal on 24 September 2019.

The harassment claim also failed. The tribunal did not accept that the alleged bullying, disclosure of his mobile number, requirement to do work he had no knowledge of, or request to fix the alarm were proved on the evidence. It further held that there was no credible basis for linking such conduct to disability. The protected disclosure claim failed because the tribunal found that Geoff Bruce played no part in the dismissal and that Mr Plummer did not make the alleged disclosure to Ms Moorey about contract prices, so it was not shown that he was dismissed because he had blown the whistle. The unpaid wages claim failed because his contract provided that additional hours were not separately payable unless agreed in advance and overtime authorised. The holiday pay claim was settled by agreement for £130.50 net and was dismissed upon withdrawal.