Mr T Duncan v Fujitsu Services Ltd — 2023

The claimant was employed by Fujitsu Services Limited from September 2017 until dismissal in April 2021. The respondent conceded that the claimant was disabled by ADHD and Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and that it had knowledge of disability throughout the relevant period. The hearing was on liability only and did not determine monetary remedy.

The tribunal upheld limited disability-related complaints. It found harassment related to disability in the respondent's failure to conduct a stress risk assessment recommended by occupational health, and by majority in relation to contact with the claimant's mother. It also found a failure to make reasonable adjustments and indirect disability discrimination in requiring the claimant personally to report sickness absence by telephone, and failures to make reasonable adjustments in requiring primarily oral communication and in not providing sufficient written information about meetings.

The tribunal dismissed the remaining employment-period allegations, including direct disability discrimination, victimisation, other harassment allegations, and other reasonable adjustment complaints. In broad terms, it found many alleged PCPs or factual allegations were not established, or that the treatment was not related to disability, not because of disability, not because of protected acts, or did not meet the statutory harassment threshold.

The dismissal-related claims were dismissed. The tribunal found the respondent dismissed the claimant because of the language used in Slack chat logs, not because of disability. It rejected the reasonable adjustment complaints about delaying the disciplinary process or arranging advocacy, dismissed the direct discrimination complaint, found the section 15 complaint failed because not all comments arose from disability and dismissal was proportionate for the respondent's legitimate aims, and held the dismissal was within the band of reasonable responses.