Mrs J A Healey v Lancashire County Council and 2 others — 2022

The claimant was employed in the first respondent's early years service and had held the Lead Senior Early Years Consultant role since 2012. She had long sickness absences connected with cancer treatment. During the 2018 restructure, the tribunal found the new Early Years Quality Improvement Lead role was very similar, though not identical, to the role she had held, and that before 7 June 2018 the proposal had been to ringfence that role to the claimant alone.

The tribunal found that the ringfence was widened to include a colleague after intervention by others, based on mistaken assumptions that the claimant was acting up and that she and the colleague had previously been on the same grade. The claimant was then required to compete in an interview process while absent due to ongoing cancer treatment and after long absence from the workplace. The tribunal found that this placed her at a substantial disadvantage and that a less discriminatory selection method, or appointment without a competitive interview, should have been used.

The disability discrimination claims succeeded only in relation to the competitive interview process: discrimination arising from disability, indirect disability discrimination, and failure to make reasonable adjustments were upheld. The direct discrimination, harassment, and victimisation complaints were dismissed, as were all complaints against the second and third respondents.

The tribunal found the claimant's dismissal unfair. It held that the Lead role and QI Lead role were almost identical, that the claimant should have been provided with the QI Lead role, and that her later refusal to accept the senior consultant role did not provide a fair basis for dismissal. Remedy was left to be identified later and no award was made in this judgment.