If you have a disability, your employer has a duty to make reasonable adjustments for you. If they don’t, you have the right to make a claim for disability discrimination.
That’s what happened to our client, Mandy Linsley, who started work at HMRC in 2001. Because she has ulcerative colitis, she sometimes needs to use the loo urgently, especially if she’s feeling stressed.
Her employer made many adjustments to take account of Mandy’s condition, such as changing her role, letting her escalate any confrontational phone calls, reducing her hours and granting flexible working, locating her workstation near the toilet, allowing regular loo breaks, discounting disability-related sickness absence and permitting a phased return to work afterwards.
In addition, finding a parking space can be stressful, so HMRC originally gave her a dedicated parking space near the toilet. This was in line with the need for ‘reasonable adjustments’ under the Equality Act 2010 and recommended by the Occupational Health Service (OH).
In 2016, Mandy moved to work at a different site. This time, she was given two parking options – but neither of them guaranteed her a space:
- Parking in an ‘essential user bay’ if there was one available. If she parked here, she’d have to sign paperwork, although she wouldn’t have to explain her condition
- Temporary parking in a layby. If she parked in this ‘unauthorised zone’, HMRC would ensure that no sanctions were applied to her, but she would have to move her car later
Mandy requested a dedicated parking space several times, even writing to the CEO “in utter desperation”.
Eventually, she went off sick with stress. She approached Paul Doran Law to help bring a claim against HMRC for disability discrimination, because they hadn’t followed the OH recommendations and made reasonable adjustments for her with regard to parking.
Initially, the employment tribunal found in favour of her employer, so we initiated an appeal on her behalf.
Happily for Mandy, the appeal tribunal found in her favour.
Why? Because HMRC has a policy to provide dedicated parking spaces for employees who need them. The appeal tribunal found HMRC was in breach of its own policy because they didn’t have a good reason for ignoring it in Mandy’s case. Also, that the parking options they offered failed to alleviate the stress that aggravated Mandy’s colitis, where the whole point of the law is that they make ‘reasonable adjustments’ that will help her.
What this means to you
As with many legal matters, the full situation is complicated, and you need a specialist on your side to help you through.
For example, you might wonder why Mandy didn’t renew her blue badge, which would have entitled her to a disabled parking space without any trouble. That’s just one of the objections we had to overcome when dealing with her case.
And, having failed to win at the initial tribunal, we had to build a case for the appeal tribunal that revolved around the legal minutiae of the matter.
If you are experiencing discrimination at work due to your disability, give us a call for a chat. There’s no charge for the initial conversation. We can discuss whether or not your employer has made reasonable adjustments for you, and advise if there’s a case for them to answer.
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