A recent case has shown that it is crucial that an employee raises any possible disability they have with their employer as soon as possible, if they wish to later rely upon it.
In the recent case of Stott v Ralli Ltd, the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) confirmed that a tribunal is entitled to reject a discrimination claim for something arising from a disability, when the employer only knew about the disability after dismissal.
In this case, the Claimant was a paralegal in a firm of solicitors. She was dismissed in her probationary period for poor performance. After her dismissal, she raised a grievance referring to a disability, thus making the Respondent aware of it. The grievance was later rejected, as was her grievance appeal. The Claimant bought a claim alleging that her dismissal was discriminatory.
The claim was clarified through several preliminary hearings and at a final hearing. The tribunal held that the Respondent did not know, and could not have reasonably known, about her disability when dismissing her.
The EAT held on the fact that the case was purely about the Claimant’s dismissal and not what happened afterwards. The full judgment can be found here.
Our Head of Employment, Ian Abel, reflects upon this case:
“This is one of the more obvious cases before the EAT, and a result that is hardly surprising given the facts. One might even suggest a budding lawyer should have known better than to try to run this argument. The fact the Claimant decided to represent herself might also explain why the case ended up in the EAT, as I can assure anyone reading this – had they posed the question to me above, based on the facts, I would have advised them that they did not have reasonable prospects of success in their case.”
“The key takeaway from the case is that it highlights that if a Claimant suffers from a disability, and desire that their employer make reasonable adjustments on the basis of the disability, they must make their employer aware of their condition.”
WHAT TO DO NEXT
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A recent case has shown that it is crucial that an employee raises any possible disability they have with their employer as soon as possible, if they wish to later rely upon it. In the recent case of Stott v Ralli Ltd, the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) confirmed that a tribunal is entitled to…
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