(Disability Discrimination: Disability) The Claimant was employed as a picker in a distribution centre. It was his job to select cases and to lift and move cases by hand for loading onto pallet trucks. Following a car accident he developed a back condition: it was common ground that the back condition was a long-term physical impairment. There was occupational health evidence that this back condition impaired his performance in that he was unable to meet the ‘pick rate’ – a target picking speed laid down by the Respondent. The Employment Judge held that his long-term physical impairment did not have a substantial effect on his carrying out normal day-to-day activities, so that he did not have a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010.
Held: appeal allowed. The Employment Judge did not give adequate reasons for his conclusions; given the occupational health evidence which the Employment Judge accepted, and applying the law relating to disability laid down in Chacon Navas v Eurest Colectividades [2006] IRLR 706, Ring v Dansk Almennyttigt Boligselskab [2013] IRLR 571 and Paterson v Commissioner of Police and the Metropolis [2007] ICR 1522, the Claimant had a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010.
David Richardson HHJ
[2016] UKEAT 0132 – 15 – 0102
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.560980