DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION – Direct disability discrimination -Reasonable adjustments – Justification – direct discrimination (section 13 Equality Act 2010) – indirect discrimination (section 19) – failure to make reasonable adjustments (sections 20 and 21) – justification
The Claimant who was disabled by reason of having undergone double below-knee amputations and suffering from type 2 diabetes and other health conditions, was denied the opportunity to take up an assignment in Dubai because his disabilities were considered to give rise to a risk if he were deployed at a location remote from the UK. The Claimant complained that this amounted to direct and/or indirect disability discrimination and/or that the Respondents had failed to comply with an obligation to make reasonable adjustments. The ET unanimously rejected the Claimant’s complaint of direct discrimination and, by a majority, dismissed his claims of indirect discrimination and of a failure to make reasonable adjustments. The Claimant appealed.
Held: dismissing the appeal
At the heart of the Claimant’s appeal was his contention that the ET had misinterpreted the medical evidence that had informed the Respondents’ decision that he should not take up the assignment; failing to appreciate that the medical advice went no further than identifying the risks the Claimant lived with on a day-to-day basis given his disabilities. On the direct discrimination claim, however, the ET had been entitled to find that a similarly placed comparator – subject to medical advice that they were at a high risk of needing medical assistance if deployed at a location remote from the UK – would have been treated in the same way as the Claimant. As for the claims of indirect discrimination and failure to make reasonable adjustments, the ET majority had correctly undertaken a staged approach to the issues it was required to determine. On the indirect discrimination complaint, ultimately the question was whether the Respondents had established that the requirement to undertake a medical assessment was justified. Given the legitimate aims the ET had found proven (essentially the avoidance of risk), the ET majority had permissibly found that this was justified. As for the reasonable adjustments complaint, the only adjustment identified by the medical advice was not to permit the Claimant to take up the assignment; otherwise, the Claimant’s complaint was really whether the Respondents should have undertaken a further assessment but that went to process rather than any adjustment.
Citations:
[2018] UKEAT 0210 – 17 – 2302
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 22 April 2022; Ref: scu.616877
