The Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled that a life-long condition that makes a person more prone to infections may not amount to a disability.
The individual, in this case, had been diagnosed with Selective IgA Deficiency, a life-long condition that made her more prone to infections. Her condition was controlled by medication. In the past the condition had caused a substantial adverse effect on her ability to carry out normal day to day activities.
She brought a claim for disability discrimination after a job offer she had received was withdrawn because one of her referees referred to her condition.
The question the tribunal had to decide was whether she was a disabled person within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010, that is whether she had a physical or mental impairment that had a substantial and long-term adverse effect on her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
The employer agreed that she had a physical impairment so the question was whether that impairment had a substantial and long-term adverse effect on her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. The tribunal ruled that it did.
On appeal the Employment Appeal Tribunal said that the tribunal had not asked itself the right question. This should have been, whether susceptibility to increased frequency of infections would itself have a substantial adverse effect on the Claimant’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities, not whether the infections would have that effect when they occurred. The evidence, it said, did not support the conclusions the Tribunal had reached.
Allowing the appeal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal referred the matter to a fresh tribunal to decide whether she was a disabled person at the material time.
Case reference: Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust v Norris
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