Disability discrimination

New and updated

• Date:

  31 December 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Ashton v Chief Constable of West Mercia Constabulary

  In Ashton v Chief Constable of West Mercia Constabulary [2001] ICR 67 EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld an employment tribunal's decision that a male to female transsexual dismissed due to poor performance had not been discriminated against on grounds of sex, although the poor performance was linked to the side effects of medical treatment for gender reassignment. It also upheld a finding that the employee was not disabled within the meaning in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

• Date:

  15 July 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Disability discrimination: Putting rollers in hair and applying make-up are "normal day-to-day activities"

  In Ekpe v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the EAT reverses an employment tribunal's decision that a woman with an impairment of her right hand, constituting a weakness of some of the muscles required for its full function, did not have a disability for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

• Date:

  1 May 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Disability discrimination: Arrangements relating to disciplinary hearing did not place disabled employee at "substantial" disadvantage

  In Cave v Goodwin and another, the Court of Appeal confirms that an employer's refusal to allow a friend of an employee with a learning disability to accompany him at a disciplinary hearing did not place him at a "substantial" disadvantage in comparison with non-disabled persons.

• Type:

  FAQs

  If a job applicant has suffered from a debilitating illness in the past, can they be excluded from the shortlist?

• Type:

  FAQs

  Is medical evidence usually relied on in a disability discrimination case?

• Date:

  1 December 2000

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Disability discrimination: Travel by normal means of transport is "normal day-to-day activity"

  In Abadeh v British Telecommunications plc the EAT holds that, for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act, the question of what constitutes a "normal day-to-day activity" must be addressed without regard to whether or not the activity is normal to the particular applicant.

• Date:

  1 December 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Disability discrimination: End user of contract worker's services was "principal"

  Where there is an unbroken chain of contracts between an individual and an end user, the end user should be regarded as the "principal" within the meaning of the contract-worker provisions contained in s.12 of the Disability Discrimination Act, the EAT holds in MHC Consulting Services Ltd v Tansell and others.

• Date:

  1 November 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Disability discrimination: Tribunal wrongly approached question of whether or not complainant was disabled

  In Vicary v British Telecommunications plc, the EAT holds that an employment tribunal's conclusion that a woman did not have a disability for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was perverse.

• Date:

  15 September 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Disability discrimination: Attested reactive depression was a disability

  An employee diagnosed as suffering from reactive depression was a "disabled person" within the meaning of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, holds the EAT in Kapadia v London Borough of Lambeth.

• Date:

  1 November 1998

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Disability discrimination: No discrimination against epileptic job applicant

  An employer could not reasonably have been expected to know, without being told by a job applicant suffering from photosensitive epilepsy, that the fluorescent lighting in the room in which she was interviewed might disadvantage her, holds the EAT in Ridout v T C Group.