In Morris v Lauren Richards Ltd [2023] EAT 19, the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) decided that the employment tribunal below had erred in law by focusing on the likely impact of termination of employment on the individual’s anxiety.
In the Employment Tribunal, the Claimant Miss Morris was held to have anxiety which had a substantial effect on her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. However, at the time, she had experienced the effect of anxiety for only three and a half months.
The Law
The law on disability discrimination sets out a definition of disability which is in Section 6(1) of the Equality Act 2010, which states:
A person (P) has a disability if P has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on P’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Paragraph 2(1) Schedule 1, says that the effect of an impairment will be long-term if, at the time of the alleged discriminatory act, it has lasted at least 12 months or is likely to last for the rest of the person’s life.
The Tribunal Decision
In the original Tribunal, the decisions was that she was not disabled under the legislation. The evidence was that Miss Morris had suffered for three months, and that she did not have a history of mental health issues. Her anxiety started only when she experienced a loss of confidence and being overwhelmed at work.
The question for the original Tribunal was; whether the effect of her anxiety was likely to last for 12 months.
The Tribunal concluded that it would not. They said that because the anxiety was centred on workplace issues, it was unlikely to persist following the termination of her employment.
The Appeal Decision
The Employment Appeal Tribunal said that the tribunal below was wrong – it had erred in law – by considering events (her dismissal) that occurred after the alleged acts of discrimination.
The Tribunal had incorrectly placed significant weight to the suggestion that the anxiety would stop post-termination.
The EAT said the tribunal should have focused on whether the effect go her anxiety ‘could well have’ continued for another eight and a half months, notwithstanding the termination of her employment.
Lessons to learn
If staff are dealing with mental health issues at work, then a decent employer will help them through that. If those mental health issues are a factor in an employers decision to dismiss, then it is likely that a claim for disability discrimination will be made out.
Even if the anxiety is relatively short-lived, if it is present and had been present prior to the act of discrimination, a tribunal is entitled to find that it amounts to a disability because it could well last for 12 months or more.
