Mr D Williams v Royal Mail Group Limited — 2025

Mr D Williams brought complaints of disability-related harassment and failure to make reasonable adjustments for disability against Royal Mail Group Limited under the Equality Act 2010. The matter was heard at Manchester from 9-12 September 2025 before Employment Judge McDonald sitting with Mr R Alldritt and Ms H Price as lay members. The claimant represented himself with the support of his wife; the respondent was represented by Mr Steve Peacock, solicitor. The respondent accepted the claimant was a disabled person by reason of autism and mental health issues. The hearing dealt with liability only.

The Tribunal dismissed the harassment claim. It upheld the reasonable adjustments claim, finding that it would have been a reasonable adjustment for the respondent to agree in September 2023 that the claimant's start time should be 06:00 rather than 06:45, and to allow him to return to work initially on a 05:00 start time and support him to transition to a 06:00 start. The Tribunal accepted the importance of the respondent's Universal Service Obligation but found insufficient evidence that absorbing surplus time arising from a shorter walk for the claimant would have prejudiced the Eccles delivery office's ability to meet the USO.

The Tribunal applied the burden of proof in s.136 Equality Act 2010 with reference to Madarassy v Nomura International plc and Deman v EHRC. A separate remedy hearing has been listed.