Mr A Pieri v Royal Mail Group Limited — 2024

The claimant, a long-serving HGV driver, was dismissed after driving away from a loading bay with the vehicle tail lift down, causing damage, and then initially giving false accounts of how the accident happened. He admitted the disciplinary allegations. The tribunal found no proper criticism of the respondent's disciplinary procedure and accepted that conduct was the reason for dismissal.

For the s.15 disability discrimination claim, the tribunal accepted that the respondent knew by the time of dismissal that the claimant was disabled by anxiety and depression, and did not establish the statutory knowledge defence. It found, with some hesitation, that lack of concentration arising from disability made a small but more than trivial contribution to the accident itself. It did not find any disability-related causal link to the claimant's false reporting, which the claimant had explained as an attempt to avoid the consequences of the incident.

The tribunal held that dismissal was justified as a proportionate means of achieving the legitimate aim of ensuring safety and maintaining customer confidence, particularly through requiring honesty and integrity from employees. The direct disability discrimination and harassment allegations about an alleged instruction not to mention diabetes were dismissed because the tribunal found the alleged act did not happen and the claims were out of time. The reasonable adjustments claims were withdrawn and dismissed on withdrawal.