E.T. Z (WR) EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 4104658/2018 Held in Glasgow on September 2018 Employment Judge: J D Young (sitting alone) Mr B Robertson v Jarvie Plant Ltd — 2018

The claimant brought a disability discrimination claim arising from his dismissal on 23 February 2018. The tribunal treated the issue as a preliminary one and decided whether, at the relevant date, he met the definition of a disabled person under section 6 Equality Act 2010. Employment Judge Young sat alone and heard evidence from the claimant and documents from the respondent, including medical records and a Fit for Work assessment.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant had undergone major heart surgery in April 2017, including a triple coronary artery bypass, and that recovery could take time. It accepted that by February 2018 he may still have had some impairment in the sense that he had not fully recovered strength from the operation. The evidence included a consultant cardiologist letter stating that full recovery could take up to one year, and the tribunal noted that this could place him close to that period by the date of dismissal.

However, the tribunal was not satisfied that the impairment had a substantial adverse effect on normal day to day activities at the material time. It considered the claimant's evidence that he could not walk more than 100 metres without resting, found that evidence difficult to reconcile with the contemporaneous medical material, and noted the absence of complaints to the employer or GP in early 2018. It also relied on the Fit for Work assessment, the later medical follow-up showing no issues, and the claimant's own timesheets, which the tribunal thought did not support the level of limitation he described.

The tribunal therefore found that the claimant did not meet the definition of a disabled person under section 6 Equality Act 2010 and dismissed the claim. No remedy was awarded because the claim failed at the disability-status stage.