Member Mr Taggart Tribunal Member Mr Doherty Miss C I Patterson v - Solicitor Iceland Foods Limited — 2021

The claimant was employed by Iceland Foods Ltd as a part-time Sales Assistant and had psoriatic arthritis. The respondent accepted that she was disabled at the relevant time. The sole claim before the Tribunal was discrimination arising from disability under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010.

The Tribunal found that the claim failed at the first stage because there was no unfavourable treatment proved. It preferred the evidence of Mr McMahon to the claimant’s evidence about the meeting on 9 November 2019 and found that he had not exaggerated the claimant’s conduct. The Tribunal also rejected the suggestion that the investigation itself was unfavourable treatment, noting that the matter did not proceed to a disciplinary hearing because the investigator, Ms Wood, could not choose between conflicting accounts.

On the rota issues, the Tribunal found that Mr McMahon had taken over the store at short notice without a handover and initially without proper access to Nexus. When the claimant raised her medical condition with him, he checked Nexus and told her he would give her leeway on timekeeping. The Tribunal found that the shifts he planned were driven by the needs of the business and the availability information he had, not by the claimant’s disability. It also found that the claimant’s objections to some shifts were mainly based on university commitments and her preference for particular shifts, rather than a disability-related inability to work them.

The Tribunal further found that, even if any disadvantage had been shown, the respondent’s actions were not because of the claimant’s disability and in any event would have been justified as a proportionate means of achieving the legitimate aim of managing the store properly. The claim was therefore dismissed.