Mrs H Adams v Alliance Healthcare Management Services Ltd — 2022

This judgment determined a preliminary issue only: whether the claimant was a disabled person for the purposes of section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 during the agreed relevant period of 4 January 2021 to 24 February 2021. The tribunal found that she had a physical impairment, namely Meniere’s Disease, supported by ENT and occupational health records, her evidence of vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss and aural fullness, and her ongoing use of Betahistine to control symptoms.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant’s tinnitus, hearing difficulties and vertigo attacks adversely affected normal day-to-day activities including concentrating, sleeping, communicating, standing, driving and cooking. It found those effects were more than minor or trivial, and that without medication the condition could well have had a substantial adverse effect, with more frequent and more debilitating attacks.

The tribunal also found the effects were long term. It accepted that the condition had worsened in 2018, that medication had been used on an ongoing basis to manage rather than cure it, and that but for that treatment substantial adverse effects were likely to have continued throughout 2019, 2020 and 2021. On that basis, the tribunal held that the claimant was disabled within section 6 Equality Act 2010, but it did not decide the underlying unfair dismissal or disability discrimination liability issues in this judgment.