Mr J Williams v North Wales Fire and Rescue Service — 2021

The claimant, Mr J Williams, was employed by North Wales Fire and Rescue Service as a retained firefighter from 28 March 2005 until his dismissal on 26 March 2020. He said that a neck injury on 15 January 2019 led to a physical impairment and brought a disability discrimination claim under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010, with the dismissal treated as the unfavourable treatment complained of. The reserved judgment dealt only with the preliminary question whether he was disabled for Equality Act purposes.

Employment Judge C Sharp accepted that the claimant had a neck impairment and that it affected him to some extent, but found that the evidence did not show a substantial adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities. The tribunal preferred the contemporaneous GP, physiotherapy and occupational health records to the claimant's oral account, which it found to be inconsistent and imprecise in places. Those records showed early improvement, fluctuating symptoms, and by February 2020 normal neck range of movement with intermittent short-lived spasms, rather than a substantial continuing effect.

The tribunal considered the claimant's descriptions of difficulty with reading, chores, driving, sleep, golf, and taking breaks when working at a computer, but held that these matters were no more than minor or trivial on the evidence. It applied the statutory definition of disability in section 6 and Schedule 1, and referred to authorities including Aderemi, Leonard, Abadeh, Goodwin, and Gestmin when assessing substantiality and the weight to give contemporaneous documents. It also said that, if necessary, it would probably have accepted that any qualifying effect was long term, but that point did not matter because substantial adverse effect had not been proved.

The result was that the claimant was found not disabled as at 26 March 2020 and the disability claim was dismissed. The judgment directed the parties to address directions for the remaining unfair dismissal and breach of contract claims, which were to proceed to a final merits hearing.