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« Pregnancy, maternity – but what about Dads? | Main | Implementing the Prevent Duty – a new review »
Monday
Feb132017

£347,000 compensation for a teacher experiencing disability-related discrimination

A teacher with a bipolar mental health difficulty has been awarded £347,000 after a school failed to make reasonable adjustments and caused her to experience discrimination related to her disability. Identifying and implementing reasonable adjustments for disabled staff and managing performance – how does your practice shape up?

A tutor experienced severe stress as a result of the way she was managed when she returned to work at her school after some time off with mental health difficulties, a tribunal was told in January 2017.

An English teacher, who had previously coached the school debating team to national success, had periods of absence in 2012 and again in 2014. While absent, a new head teacher had been appointed to the school. On her return to work in an altered role, the tutor was asked to meet the new head teacher to discuss concerns and was told that she would be subject to a formal lesson observation process. The new head teacher told the tutor to accept a settlement or be put through capability proceedings that only one in 10 teachers pass.

The tutor signed a resignation letter and a legally unenforceable settlement agreement.

The tutor’s psychiatrist told the tribunal ‘I think the end result was that she felt psychologically shattered when there was a change in management. She felt victimised and bullied and certain things she was asked to do were not really fair and she psychologically crumbled as a result of ongoing work-related stress and the behaviour of management towards her.’

The tutor’s barrister said at the tribunal ‘She should have been treated with kid gloves. Instead she was treated with an iron fist.’

Fflur Jones, head of employment law at Darwin Gray, which represented the tutor said: “As the Employment Tribunal’s judgement stated, [the tutor] had been a ‘high performer’ but her employer’s practices caused her to suffer discrimination due to her disability and failed to make reasonable adjustments to assist her to continue to perform in her role despite her disability.’

Awarding the tutor a total of £346,175, the tribunal judge said ‘we must consider what would have happened if a supportive programme had been put in place. It seems that had performance management been dealt with support and sensitivity the claimant may well have been able to sustain a long career with performance at an adequate level.’

Her award covered loss of earnings, notice pay, future loss of earnings, injury to feelings, personal injury, pension loss and a basic award.

The case raises a number of issues and challenges for HR. Here are just a few:

  • How proactive are you in encouraging staff disability disclosure, for example of a sensory impairment, learning difficulty, mental health difficulty or medical condition?
  • How robust are your policies and practices for identifying, agreeing, implementing and reviewing reasonable adjustments?
  • Do managers understand the boundary between what is ‘reasonable’ and what is ‘unreasonable’ in terms of adjustments?
  • Have you carried out thorough equality impact assessments on your key policies and procedures such as your sickness absence policy and your capability proceedings, to ensure that these do not inadvertently impact on staff with mental health difficulties?
  • What mechanisms do you have in place to determine how supported disabled staff feel in your workplace?

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