Mr. Mario Franciamore v Criterion Hospitality — 2023

Mr. Franciamore was employed as a Digital Marketing Manager on 22 July 2019 and had disclosed Crohn's disease and Behcet's disease. The tribunal accepted that some absences in February and March 2020 were likely linked to his disability, although it found that his absence from 3 to 7 February 2020 was not disability-related. It also rejected his allegation that he was subjected to unfavourable treatment in relation to any potential future need to work from home.

The respondent said the dismissal on 17 March 2020 was caused by a genuine redundancy situation arising from reduced bookings and the impact of the pandemic. The tribunal accepted that the business was under financial pressure and that there was a genuine redundancy situation across the respondent's business and in the claimant's team. It also found that the evidence from the claimant's former colleagues carried little weight because the statements were hearsay and there were no contemporaneous notes of the selection process.

However, the tribunal found that the claimant's sickness absences, most of which it accepted were linked to disability, played more than a trivial role in the decision to select him for redundancy over Remi Gutteridge. On that basis it held that the dismissal amounted to disability discrimination under section 15 Equality Act 2010. Applying the Chagger principle, it further found that the claimant would in any event have been fairly dismissed on 31 July 2020, so any loss of earnings would be limited to that date. The judgment was a liability decision only and the issue of remedy was left to a later hearing.