Mr C Thompson v Ainscough Limited — 2024

This was a preliminary hearing on whether Mr C Thompson was disabled within the meaning of section 6 Equality Act 2010 at the material time, 17 May 2023, when he was dismissed. The tribunal accepted that his condition was a functional neurological disorder resulting from long COVID which caused impairment to his left leg, and it treated the issue as whether that impairment had a substantial and long-term adverse effect on day-to-day activities.

The tribunal preferred the claimant's evidence and the medical material showing progressive problems with walking from about May 2021, including physiotherapy reports in November and December 2021, a consultant neurologist report in June 2022, and further referrals in March 2023 because symptoms were worsening. It accepted that he had difficulty walking at work, including using his forklift truck to get to the toilet facilities, that he was in pain, and that he was taking co-codamol to manage that pain. It also accepted that the impairment was deteriorating and that the formal diagnosis made shortly after dismissal was consistent with the same impairment being present six or seven weeks earlier.

The respondent relied on the absence of references to leg difficulty in GP notes before dismissal and argued that any disability only arose after the dismissal. The tribunal rejected that analysis, found that the GP records did not undermine the claimant's case, and held that the impairment had a substantial adverse effect, being more than minor or trivial, and was long-term because it had already lasted a significant period and was likely to last at least 12 months. The tribunal therefore found that Mr Thompson was disabled on 17 May 2023. No findings were made on the respondent's knowledge, which was left for the substantive hearing, and the disability discrimination claims under sections 13 and 15 remain live.