in person For the v Miss Splavska, Litigation Executive — 2023

Mrs L Chivers brought a disability discrimination claim against five respondents. She had been employed as a recruitment administrator on a fixed-term contract from 11 October 2021 to 11 April 2022. Before the end of that employment she submitted a grievance about what she perceived to be disability discrimination, but the details of that grievance were not before the tribunal.

The tribunal ordered her to provide an impact statement and medical evidence and to identify the impairment relied upon. She said she suffered from hypertension brought on by stress, and that stressful situations could cause hearing loss. She also referred to a medical research paper said to support a link between hypertension and hearing loss, but she did not provide medical records or other documentary evidence showing that she had hearing loss or that it was connected to her condition.

At the hearing on 27 February 2023, the claimant said she had hypertension for around 12 years, that she took medication for it, and that spikes in hypertension would make her temporarily deaf so that she could not hear what was said to her on the telephone. She accepted that she had not received a separate diagnosis of hearing loss, that she could not evidence the asserted link, and that any effects were transient rather than long-lasting. The tribunal also recorded that her GP believed what she was saying but could not add more.

The Employment Judge held, on the balance of probabilities, that the claimant had not shown she had a disability within section 6 Equality Act 2010. The tribunal found there was no evidence of hearing loss and no basis on which it could find a substantial or long-term impairment. The claim was therefore struck out.