Ms M Reid v Vinci Construction UK Limited — 2024

The tribunal heard a preliminary issue on whether Ms M Reid was disabled within the meaning of section 6 Equality Act 2010 during the relevant period, agreed by the parties as 1 November 2022 to 17 September 2023. It considered GP records, Inclusion Thurrock records, two disability impact statements, and oral evidence. The tribunal found that Ms Reid had a mental impairment, namely anxiety and depression, during the relevant period, although the severity fluctuated and there were periods when she was coping better than at others.

The tribunal accepted her evidence that the impairment affected normal day-to-day activities including cooking, cleaning, motivation, concentration, sleep, and engagement with her family. It noted the respondent's point that she had almost no sickness absence, continued to work, drove to work and client meetings, and helped in the background with setting up Nu Me Salons Limited, but held that those facts did not show that her ability to carry out day-to-day activities was unaffected. The tribunal found that she was trying to cope and that outward functioning did not negate the existence of impairment.

Applying the statutory definition of disability, the tribunal found that the adverse effect was substantial, meaning more than minor or trivial, and that it was long term. It relied on the claimant's prior history of anxiety and depression from 2018, counselling in 2021 and again in 2023, the March and April 2023 GP entries, and the Inclusion Thurrock material showing ongoing symptoms. The tribunal concluded that the claimant was a disabled person within the meaning of section 6 Equality Act 2010. No monetary remedy was determined in this judgment.