Mr J Mezgebe v Christ’s College Finchley — 2025

The claimant was a Senior IT Technician at the respondent school and was dismissed on 25 February 2021 at the end of a six-month probationary period. The parties agreed that he was disabled by obstructive sleep apnoea, but the respondent's knowledge of disability and of any substantial disadvantage was disputed.

By a majority, the tribunal found that the respondent did not have actual or constructive knowledge of the claimant's disability at any material time. The majority also found that the claimant had not shown that the matters relied on arose in consequence of disability for the section 15 Equality Act claim, and that the proposed reasonable adjustments would not have reduced or eliminated the asserted disadvantage and were not reasonable on the facts found.

The victimisation complaint was dismissed unanimously. The majority found that the claimant had not established protected acts, while Mr Sagar, who found a limited protected act, concluded that the detriments he found had nothing to do with that act. The withdrawn complaints of automatic unfair dismissal, direct race discrimination, direct disability discrimination, and section 44(1)(c) detriment were dismissed upon withdrawal.