Mr E MacDonald of Counsel For the v Respondent — 2021

Ms S Langan brought disability discrimination complaints against Development Pathways Ltd, including failure to make reasonable adjustments, discrimination arising from disability, and harassment related to disability. This judgment was a preliminary hearing confined to whether she was disabled within s.6 Equality Act 2010 at the relevant time, said to involve depression and/or PTSD following the Haiti trip in early March 2020.

The Tribunal accepted that the claimant had significant symptoms during the material period, but it found that the onset of symptoms amounting to a substantial adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities was 13 May 2020. It rejected her evidence that the earlier period off work was due to Covid, and did not accept some of her evidence about her medical history and the timing and duration of the impairment. The Tribunal relied on the insurer form, GP records, sick notes, the Talk Together Bromley assessment and Dr Gibbons' report as showing depression and PTSD symptoms from mid-May 2020 until the end of employment.

Applying s.6(1) EqA 2010 and the long-term test in Schedule 1, with reference to Aderemi, McDougall, All Answers, Goodwin, Sussex Partnership, Woodrup, SCA Packaging and Igweike, the Tribunal held that the claimant had not shown that the substantial adverse effects were likely to last 12 months or more, or that recurrence could well happen on the evidence available at the material time. It therefore concluded that she was not disabled for Equality Act purposes at the relevant time. No remedy was awarded in this preliminary judgment.