Member J Wallage Tribunal Member S Singh Mrs D Marlow v Represented by: Mr I Marlow - Husband SunWaves Ltd — 2021

The tribunal accepted that Ms Marlow suffered from anxiety and depression and held that this amounted to a disability for the purposes of s.6 Equality Act 2010. It applied the four questions in Goodwin v Patent Office and found that the impairment had a substantial and long-term adverse effect on day-to-day activities, taking into account the effect of medication.

The tribunal then considered knowledge. It found that SunWaves 5 Ltd did not know, and could not reasonably have been expected to know, that Ms Marlow was disabled. It accepted evidence that the claimant had discussed some health matters with Mrs Hutchison in confidence, but that these were not passed to management and there was nothing else to alert the respondent to a disability.

On the disputed termination issue, the tribunal preferred the evidence of Mrs Paterson and Mr Bandoni and found that the claimant resigned in the telephone conversation on 18 October 2022 rather than being dismissed. It accepted that the respondent processed final pay and a P45 quickly, but did not accept that this showed a pre-planned dismissal or fraud. Even if the tribunal had been wrong about resignation, it held that the claim would still fail because the respondent did not know of the disability, so the claimant could not prove direct discrimination or discrimination arising from disability. The claims were dismissed.