Miss K Wilson v Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust — 2022

The claimant, a health visitor, brought claims arising from events across the Chorlton, Burnage and Cheetham teams. The respondent conceded that she was disabled by anxiety and depression, but disputed PTSD. The tribunal preferred the evidence of the respondent's witnesses where accounts conflicted and found that the claimant had not proved PTSD or PTSD-like symptoms as a disability.

The tribunal dismissed the whistleblowing detriment claims. It found that the alleged disclosures about colleagues' practice, rum cake, sick leave travel, record keeping, and team issues were not protected disclosures because the claimant had not established a reasonable belief that they were in the public interest and tended to show a relevant legal breach or health and safety endangerment. It also found that the alleged detriments were not established, were responses to complaints about the claimant's own behaviour, or were otherwise not caused by any disclosure; many allegations were also found to be out of time.

The sexual orientation and race harassment claims were dismissed on the facts. The tribunal found that the alleged sexual orientation comments and alleged naked Idris Elba photograph incident were not established. On race, it found that the claimant's name had been mispronounced or autocorrected in isolated circumstances, but not mocked because of Polish or perceived foreign origin and not in a way meeting the harassment test.

The disability claims were also dismissed. The tribunal found that the move between teams, investigations, informal counselling, absence management steps and other matters were not because of disability or something arising from disability. It found that the reasonable adjustments complaints about noise, workplace conduct and caseload were not made out; where Access to Work recommendations were made, the respondent had taken steps to implement them, albeit with some delay explained by the evidence.