Miss Aneta Drozdek v Interpreter Mr Rozycki Transcal Limited — 2024

This was a preliminary hearing on disability status only. The claimant, Miss Aneta Drozdek, said she had disabilities arising from depression/anxiety and from weakness in both wrists. The respondent led no evidence. The tribunal heard the claimant's evidence and considered her GP records, physiotherapy records and other papers. It found her generally credible and reliable, but was not satisfied that she had shown a mental impairment amounting to a disability in relation to depression or anxiety.

On the mental health issue, the tribunal accepted that the records showed stress at work, low mood, anxiety and upset at various points, including references in 2017, 2018, 2021 and a fit note in April 2024 referring to depressed mood and stress at work. However, it found there were long gaps in the records, no formal assessment or diagnosis of depression, and that the GP notes described the difficulties as situational. The tribunal was not convinced that the claimant had demonstrated a long-term disability from depression/anxiety, and it treated the final fit note and first antidepressant prescription in 2024 as insufficient to prove an earlier pre-existing disability.

On the wrists and hands, the tribunal accepted that the claimant had continuing pain, numbness and weakness in both hands after carpal tunnel operations in 2016 and 2017. It noted the GP record in June 2023 referring to likely Renaud's Phenomena on both hands and accepted that the symptoms affected ordinary activities such as shopping and household tasks, with the claimant managing by taking painkillers, limiting what she carried and getting help from her son. It held that the adverse effect was substantial, more than trivial, and therefore that she was disabled from June 2023. The tribunal could not confidently fix an earlier start date on the balance of probabilities.