Case 2402617/2019 · Employment Tribunal

Ms G Thomas v St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust — 2021

Case reference: 2402617/2019
Decision date: 2 March 2021
Jurisdiction: England & Wales
Judge: Employment Judge Holmes
Panel members: Ms B Hillon, Mr M Smith

Indexed: 20 May 2026

Parties

2 named

Claimant

Ms G Thomas

Respondent

St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Key findings

Tribunal's reasoning

The claimant, who had right sided hemiplegia, applied for and was conditionally offered a Health Care Assistant role in the Out Patients Department. After an occupational health report stated that her mobility was limited and that she could walk for about 25 minutes before resting, the respondent withdrew the offer on 23 November 2018 without first discussing the report with her or carrying out the risk assessment recommended in the report.

The tribunal found that the withdrawal of the job offer was unfavourable treatment. It rejected the respondent's case that the reason was conflicting information from the claimant, finding that the stated reason was the occupational health report and the belief that adjustments would be required but could not be accommodated. The claimant's restricted walking arose from her disability, so the s.15 causation requirement was met.

The tribunal found the withdrawal was not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. It relied on the speed of the withdrawal, the absence of consultation with the claimant, and the failure to carry out the recommended risk assessment before withdrawing the offer. A later risk assessment and grievance process led to the claimant being appointed to the role on 4 February 2019, which she was able to perform without adjustments. Compensation was limited to injury to feelings, as there was no financial loss.

Claims and outcomes

2 findings recorded

This case has mixed outcomes under at least one legal claim type. A tribunal can uphold some allegations and dismiss others under the same legal head, so rows below may represent separate issues or allegation groups from the judgment.

Claim type	Issue or finding	Outcome	Protected characteristic	Award
Disability discrimination	The tribunal upheld the claim under s.15 Equality Act 2010 for discrimination arising from disability. It found that withdrawing the conditional offer of employment was unfavourable treatment because of something arising in consequence of the claimant's disability, and that the respondent had not shown the withdrawal was justified.	Upheld	Disability	£4,000
Disability discrimination	The failure to make reasonable adjustments claim under s.21 Equality Act 2010 was pleaded in the alternative. The tribunal said it was academic given the s.15 finding, but that it would in the alternative have found a failure to make the reasonable adjustment of adjusting or removing the PCP sooner than the respondent did.	Other	Disability	—

Remedy

Monetary award

Total award: £4,724; across all upheld claims

Legal tests applied

12 references

Official outcome judgment PDF

Gov.uk primary record

The official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.

Open official judgment PDF on gov.uk

Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

How we got this data

Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.

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