Dr Janet Chapman v Surgery — 2018

This was a preliminary hearing on disability status in a case where one of the claimant's complaints was disability discrimination. The tribunal accepted that the claimant had carpal tunnel syndrome, a physical impairment, and that the impairment was long term; the live issue was whether, during the relevant period from June 2015 to July 2016, it had a substantial adverse effect on her ability to carry out normal day to day activities.

The tribunal found that the claimant's symptoms affected both hands. It accepted evidence that, before her left-hand surgery on 11 September 2015, she had worsening numbness, reduced grip strength and difficulty with tasks such as dressing her children, using buttons, zips and clasps, preparing meals, using cutlery and scissors, handling bottles and containers, and managing baby checks and injections at work. The tribunal considered her evidence credible and reliable, and noted that her approach was generally to keep trying to complete tasks or find an alternative way of doing them.

Applying section 6(1) Equality Act 2010, section 212(2), Schedule 1 paragraph 12(1), the 2011 Guidance and the approach in Ginn v Tesco Stores Ltd UK/EAT/0197/05, the tribunal concluded that the impairment had an adverse effect and that the effect was substantial, meaning more than minor or trivial. It therefore held that at the material time the claimant was disabled within the Equality Act 2010. No monetary award was recorded in this judgment because the decision determined only the disability-status issue.