Mr E J Czerniak v Broxtowe Borough Council — 2018

Mr Czerniak brought claims including unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, disability discrimination and failure to make reasonable adjustments, but this hearing was confined to a preliminary issue about disability. The tribunal accepted that he was already disabled by reason of cancer, and considered whether atrial fibrillation, stress/anxiety, a back injury and a TIA, separately or cumulatively, also met the statutory definition. Where the claimant's oral evidence differed from his GP notes, the judge preferred the contemporaneous medical records.

On atrial fibrillation, the tribunal found that the condition was asymptomatic when diagnosed in September 2016 and remained recorded in follow-up consultations as doing well, with nil issues or no symptoms. The brief lethargy caused by Atenolol led to a change of medication, but the later notes recorded no ongoing adverse effects and no limitation on normal day-to-day activities. The tribunal therefore held that AF was not a disability.

The back injury arose after a cycling accident in October 2017 and caused pain and reduced mobility for around four to five months. By March 2018 the notes described the claimant as active and keen to improve further, and later records showed him walking five to six miles a day and doing gardening and DIY. The tribunal accepted there had been an adverse effect, but held that it was not long-term and that there was no evidence of likely recurrence.

On stress, the tribunal accepted there may have been work-related stress from March 2017 until employment ended in July 2018, but found very limited evidence of any effect on normal day-to-day activities beyond loss of appetite and some sleep disturbance. It treated the stress as a reaction to adverse life events rather than a qualifying impairment under the Act. The TIA was conceded not to be long-term, and the tribunal concluded that none of the alleged impairments, individually or together, amounted to a disability for the purposes of s.6 Equality Act 2010.