Mr Richard Taylor v Meggitt Aerospace Ltd — 2021

This was an attended preliminary hearing before Employment Judge R Broughton sitting alone. The only issue decided was whether Mr Richard Taylor was disabled at the material time, 7 April 2020, for the purposes of his disability discrimination claim against Meggitt Aerospace Ltd. The tribunal accepted that high blood pressure, low mood/depression and sleep apnoea were impairments, but had to decide whether any of them, alone or cumulatively, had a substantial and long-term adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities.

The tribunal found that there were no substantial adverse effects before the beginning of October 2019. It accepted that Mr Taylor had high blood pressure in August 2018 and that he was prescribed citalopram for anxiety, but on the evidence before it his blood pressure was asymptomatic and he continued working without sickness absence. The tribunal also found that the anxiety linked to starting and training for the role did not produce a substantial adverse effect on his normal day-to-day activities during that earlier period.

From the beginning of October 2019, the tribunal accepted that Mr Taylor’s low mood/depression and blood pressure separately, and also cumulatively with sleep apnoea, had substantial adverse effects on his normal day-to-day activities. It accepted evidence of low mood, withdrawal, confusion, fatigue, appetite loss, reduced self-care, headaches and nosebleeds, and found that those effects had become substantial by early October 2019. However, it found insufficient evidence that sleep apnoea by itself had a substantial adverse effect at any point.

The tribunal held that the long-term element was not made out as at 7 April 2020. It found that the substantial effects of low mood/depression had ceased by the time Mr Taylor returned to work at the end of March 2020, and that by then he was well enough to work seven night shifts. It was not satisfied that sleep apnoea had substantial effects continuing at that date, and it found that the blood pressure effects were not shown to be likely to last for 12 months from October 2019. On that basis, the section 6 Equality Act 2010 definition was not satisfied and the disability discrimination claim was dismissed. The tribunal also recorded that holiday pay and notice pay would proceed to a final hearing.