Miss Bahar Rasti Nosrani v Cygnet Health Care Limited — 2023

This was a preliminary hearing to determine whether the claimant was a disabled person within the meaning of section 6 of the Equality Act 2010. The tribunal considered whether, at the material time during her employment, she had the asserted physical impairments, whether they had a substantial adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities, and whether any such effect was long term.

The tribunal placed significant weight on the contemporaneous medical records. It found the claimant's evidence unclear in material respects and noted her own evidence that, when she started work for the respondent, she was not experiencing severe or significant symptoms. The tribunal accepted there was evidence of an episode of intense pain and spasm in August 2021 affecting daily activities for about 10 days, but found only vague and generic evidence of substantial adverse effects more generally.

The tribunal concluded that the claimant had not proved that she had the relied-upon impairments at the material time, and in any event had not shown effects that had lasted, or were likely to last, at least 12 months, nor effects likely to recur so as to be long term. It therefore found that she was not a disabled person for the purposes of the Act and dismissed the disability discrimination complaints.