Mrs K Hawkins Respondent 1: Beautiful Borders Respondent 2: Mrs K Tegg v Mrs K Tegg — 2024

This hearing determined only whether Mrs K Hawkins was disabled for the purposes of s.6 Equality Act 2010 during the material period, which the tribunal identified as 13 October 2022 to 17 April 2023. Applying the claimant's burden of proof and the authorities it cited on impairment, substantial adverse effect and long-term effect, Employment Judge Graham found that she had a mental impairment at the material time.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant's mental health difficulties had existed for many years, including a 2002 diagnosis of mixed anxiety and depressive disorder and EUPD traits, long-term antidepressant treatment, and evidence of trauma-related symptoms linked to her Navy service. It accepted that, during the material period, the claimant experienced low mood, anxiety, social avoidance, anger, difficulty dealing with confrontational behaviour, and difficulty coping with multiple or unplanned instructions, and that these affected normal day-to-day activities.

The tribunal also found that the claimant was working part-time because full-time work would become too much for her to deal with, and that the medication and weekly support from Dr Le Page and the mental health nurse were measures which kept her condition stable but did not cure it. Applying Schedule 1 paragraph 5(1), it treated the effects as substantial in the absence of those measures, and found that the effects had lasted for at least 12 months. No liability decision was made on the underlying discrimination, wages, or holiday claims at this hearing.