A v Represented by: Ms G Donald, Solicitor Royal Mail Group Ltd — 2024

This was a preliminary issue judgment on whether the claimant was a disabled person under section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 at the relevant time, December 2023. The tribunal held that she was disabled in respect of persistent joint pain in her wrists and ankles and bowel incontinence. It was satisfied that both conditions had a substantial and long-term adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities, with the effects having persisted for more than a year.

The tribunal accepted that the medical records and occupational health evidence showed ongoing complaints of fatigue, joint pain and bowel symptoms, but it did not treat the occupational health reports as determinative because their reasoning on duration was unclear. It found that the joint pain affected gripping, household tasks, walking, sleep and childcare, while the bowel incontinence required the claimant to plan her day around toilet access and limited how long she could leave home.

The respondent relied on the claimant's participation in the Kessock Ferry Swim 2023 and argued that this undermined the disability case. The tribunal accepted that she completed the swim and that she was a keen swimmer, but it did not accept that the event disproved disability. It found that her evidence was generally credible, though it considered she had been guarded about the swim during occupational health discussions. The tribunal did not accept fatigue as a separate impairment on the evidence, concluding it was not made out that fatigue was a symptom of an undiagnosed condition rather than other causes. No monetary remedy was awarded in this judgment because it decided disability status only.