(sitting alone) Mr J Cowan v Represented by: In person Telecom Service Centres Ltd — 2017

This was a preliminary hearing on whether Mr J Cowan was disabled for Equality Act purposes at the relevant time for his discrimination claim against Telecom Service Centres Ltd t/a Webhelp UK. He said he had a mental impairment consisting of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder arising from assaults in 1994 and 2009. The tribunal accepted that he was a truthful witness and found, on the evidence, that he did have PTSD by 16 December 2016, the last possible date of alleged discrimination.

The tribunal held that the relevant statutory test was section 6 of the Equality Act 2010, and approached the issue by asking whether there was a mental impairment, whether it had adverse effects on normal day-to-day activities, whether those effects were substantial, and whether they were long-term. It accepted that the claimant’s difficulties from June 2016 onwards were attributable to PTSD rather than separate anxiety or depression, and noted that his earlier medical history included a referral to Dr Jauhar and later GP and psychiatric evidence referring to PTSD, anxiety, low mood and hypervigilance.

However, the tribunal found that up to June 2016 the effect of the PTSD was minimal and that by December 2016 the adverse effects were not shown to be substantial. It relied on evidence that he continued to travel to work by public transport until December, still went out in the evenings at times, and that his avoidance of crowds, queues and drinking venues did not amount, on the evidence, to a serious adverse effect on day-to-day activities.

The tribunal also found that the effects were not long-term at the relevant date. It applied the statutory definition of long term in Schedule 1 to the Equality Act 2010 and concluded that the adverse effects had not lasted 12 months by December 2016 and there was no evidence then that they were likely to last 12 months or for life. The claim was therefore dismissed.