EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 4113745/2021 Held via Cloud Video Platform (CVP) on April 2022 Employment Judge J D Young v NHS — 2022

TD was employed by NHS 24 and was diagnosed with Long QT type 1 syndrome in April 2021. She brought disability discrimination complaints arising from her request to work an 18-hour rota with no night shifts and from the requirement to work nightshifts on that rota. NHS 24 accepted that she had a physical impairment but disputed that it had a substantial and long-term adverse effect and disputed when it knew, or should have known, that she was disabled.

The tribunal applied section 6 Equality Act 2010, the Schedule 1 long-term disability provisions and the authorities it cited on disability and knowledge. It accepted that Long QT syndrome was a lifelong genetic condition. It rejected the suggestion that the claimant's driving, exercise, shopping, socialising, or eating and drinking showed no disability, but found that nightshift work did have a substantial adverse effect because the claimant experienced dizziness, nausea, palpitations, fatigue and a sense of imminent collapse around 3am to 5am. The tribunal also relied on the occupational health report, which referred to research linking nightshift working with increased arrhythmia risk and said she would be best supported by exclusion from nightworking.

The tribunal found that the substantial adverse effect was long term because the condition had been affecting the claimant from at least June 2020, had lasted for more than 12 months by the material date, and would continue for the rest of her life. It therefore held that she was a disabled person within the meaning of section 6 during the relevant period from 12 July 2021 to 17 December 2021. On knowledge, the tribunal concluded that the respondent could reasonably have been expected to know that the claimant was disabled and likely to be placed at the relevant disadvantage from 20 August 2021, when the appeal materials and hearing provided fuller details of the nightshift-related effects. No financial award was made in this preliminary judgment.