Case 3305521/2020 · Employment Tribunal
In person For the v Ms Nicola Smyrl, Solicitor — 2018
- Case reference
- 3305521/2020
- Decision date
- 14 September 2018
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Alliott
Parties
2 namedClaimant
In person For the
Respondent
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe tribunal heard the matter remotely on the papers and recorded that the claimant had been employed by the respondent from 12 November 2018 as a generator service engineer until dismissal with effect from 13 March 2020. The claim form had included unfair dismissal, failure to provide written reasons for dismissal, disability discrimination and arrears of pay. The tribunal held that the unfair dismissal claim and the claim for written reasons were not accepted because the claimant did not have the necessary two years' qualifying employment.
On the preliminary disability issue, the tribunal found that the claimant had sustained a prolapsed disc at L4/5 in 2003 and continued to suffer from that condition throughout his employment. It accepted evidence that the condition affected walking slowly, standing in queues, sitting for long periods, lifting heavy items and driving, and held that these were normal day-to-day activities. The tribunal found that the impairment had a substantial adverse effect on those activities, which would have been greater without anti-inflammatory medication, so the claimant was disabled at all relevant times by reason of the prolapsed disc.
The tribunal also found that the claimant had a diagnosis of depression before September 2018 and had been prescribed antidepressant medication. It noted the claimant's long relationship with alcohol and stated that alcohol addiction is excluded from the Equality Act definition of disability, but it could not determine whether alcohol abuse was cause or effect of the mental impairment. On the evidence of avoidance, procrastination, low self-worth, social withdrawal and difficulty responding to emails and texts, the tribunal found that depression had a debilitating and sometimes substantial effect on normal day-to-day activities, and that the effect would be more severe without medication. It therefore held that the claimant was a disabled person within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 by reason of depression/anxiety.
Claims and outcomes
3 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfair dismissal | Not accepted because the claimant did not have the necessary two years' qualifying employment. | Other | — | — |
| Other | Claim for failure to provide written reasons for dismissal was not accepted because the claimant did not have the necessary two years' qualifying employment. | Other | — | — |
| Disability discrimination | Preliminary issue only; the tribunal found the claimant was disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 at all material times by reason of prolapsed disc and depression/anxiety, but this judgment did not determine the substantive discrimination allegations. | Upheld | Disability | — |
Legal tests applied
2 references- s.6 Equality Act 2010
- Guidance on the definition of disability (2011)
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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