Mr R Connor v Boots Management Services Ltd — 2020

The claimant was employed as a Pharmacy Delivery and Collection Service Driver and was disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 by reason of depression, severe anxiety and stress. After his return from sickness absence, two changes affected the evening shift: drivers were no longer permitted to split the early route, and monthly care home deliveries were sometimes added. The tribunal accepted that the first change was likely to have increased the claimant's workload because he usually did the early route, but found that he was not required to work outside his contract or beyond his contractual hours.

For the section 15 Equality Act claim, the tribunal found that the claimant's absence arose in consequence of his disability, but that the relevant changes were not because of that absence. It accepted the respondent's evidence that the changes resulted from national instructions and operational reasons, and found no causal link between the absence and the changes. The disability discrimination claim was dismissed.

For constructive dismissal, the tribunal considered the matters relied on by the claimant, including the requested contract change, allocation of work, pay and absence-recording issues, deletion from Facebook, events on 13 June 2018, and the Lightfoot records. It accepted that the claimant genuinely believed the respondent's conduct justified resignation and that errors had been made, but found, viewed objectively and as a whole, that there had been no breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. The constructive unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal claims therefore failed.