Mr Joseph Todd v Prestwick Airport — 2021

This was a preliminary hearing to determine whether Mr Joseph Todd was disabled for the purposes of s6 Equality Act 2010 at the date of dismissal, 7 January 2021. The Tribunal heard the Claimant’s evidence, found him to be a reliable and credible witness, and took note of his wife’s statement, but gave it limited weight because she did not give evidence or face cross-examination. The Respondent did not challenge the Claimant’s credibility and the dispute was essentially about whether his symptoms amounted to a disability.

The Tribunal found that when the Claimant was required to work 12-hour night shifts he experienced anxiety and stress affecting sleep, eating, concentration, socialising and household activities. It treated those matters as normal day-to-day activities and held that the effects were substantial, being more than minor or trivial. The Tribunal also found, for completeness, that this amounted to a mental impairment when the specific circumstances of a 12-hour night shift applied, even though there was no formal diagnosis of a recognised medical condition.

The claim failed on the long-term condition. The Tribunal accepted that the effects could recur if the Claimant were again required to work a 12-hour night shift, but it concluded that there was very little or no likelihood of recurrence because the effects only arose in that specific situation, he had no similar effects in other circumstances, and he had taken steps to avoid night shifts in future. It also found that being unable to work 12-hour night shifts did not prevent him from engaging in working life generally.

Because the Claimant did not prove that the effects were long-term within s6 and Schedule 1 of the 2010 Act, he did not establish that he was disabled. The Tribunal therefore held that it had no jurisdiction to hear the disability discrimination claims and dismissed them.