C v Browns Food Group Limited — 2023

The claimant worked for Browns Food Group Limited from 18 February 2022 until his resignation on 25 November 2022 as a Despatch Administrator. He later applied to be re-engaged in the same role, interviewed on 9 January 2023, and was told on 19 January 2023 that he had been unsuccessful. The hearing was a preliminary one to decide whether, in December 2022 and January 2023, he was a disabled person for the purposes of section 6 of the Equality Act 2010.

The tribunal granted both amendment applications. It allowed an amendment alleging that employees of the respondent had, between 14 December 2022 and 19 January 2023, sought to influence the re-engagement decision by referring to the claimant's previous employment tribunal claim, and a further amendment concerning a reference provided on or around 18 and 19 April 2023. It also allowed the claimant to rely on type 1 diabetes as an additional or alternative basis for disability, treating that second application as a re-labelling exercise rather than a materially wider claim.

Applying the approach in Goodwin v Patent Office and J v DLA Piper UK LLP, the tribunal found that the claimant had a mental impairment consisting of anxiety and depression. It relied on DWP assessments from 2018 and 2020, Adult Disability Payment material, GP records and the claimant's own evidence, and accepted that his condition affected cooking, eating, medication, washing, dressing, social interaction and budgeting, with low mood, anxiety, intrusive thoughts and suicidal ideation. The tribunal concluded that the effect was substantial and long-term, with a substantial effect present from the beginning of 2022 and likely to recur or continue, so the claimant was disabled at the material time and the case would proceed to a full hearing.