Mr L Finn v Royal Mail Group Limited — 2020

The claimant was employed by Royal Mail Group Limited as a delivery and collection driver and was dismissed with notice after progressing through the respondent's attendance procedure. The tribunal found that the reason for dismissal was some other substantial reason: the claimant had failed to meet the attendance standards in the respondent's attendance policy.

The tribunal concluded that dismissal was within the range of responses of an employer in the respondent's position. It noted that the respondent considered whether the claimant was disabled, considered his length of service, attached importance to agreed attendance standards, and had commercial reasons for requiring compliance with those standards. The claimant had been in the attendance procedure for two years without exiting it, and the respondent considered future attendance at both dismissal and appeal stages.

On disability, the tribunal accepted that the claimant had a long-term impairment of hiatus hernia and acid reflux, but found that the impairment did not have a substantial adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities. It also found that the respondent did not know and could not reasonably have known that the claimant was disabled. The disability discrimination complaint based on failure to make reasonable adjustments was therefore dismissed.