Mr T Cox v Lancashire County Council — 2019

The claimant, an IT specialist employed by the respondent, had autistic spectrum disorder and was accepted to be disabled for Equality Act purposes. The claims arose from arrangements for disciplinary hearings following complaints about telephone interactions. The tribunal recorded that the disciplinary process was later discontinued and the claimant remained employed.

The tribunal upheld the right to be accompanied claim. It found that the claimant made requests within the statutory framework to postpone the hearings scheduled for 6 March 2019 and 1 April 2019 because his chosen companion was unavailable, and that the respondent refused those requests. The later postponement of the hearings for other reasons did not remove the breach.

The tribunal upheld the reasonable adjustments claim in part. It found that the respondent applied a PCP limiting accompaniment to a colleague or trade union official, that this placed the claimant at a substantial disadvantage because of communication difficulties linked to his ASD, and that the respondent knew or could reasonably have been expected to know of that disadvantage. The respondent failed to make reasonable adjustments for the 6 March hearing and, in relation to the 1 April hearing, until it allowed the claimant's wife to accompany him on 28 March 2019. The tribunal dismissed the other reasonable adjustment allegations, including those concerning withdrawal of the disciplinary allegation and the timing of postponements, because the pleaded PCPs were not made out or the proposed adjustments were not reasonable adjustments on the tribunal's analysis.