Disability

[brass]

A friend had chemo in 2017 for 6 months and the employer made him redundant in 2018. The ET1 claim includes disability discrimination. The ET3 denies that he had/has a disability under the equality act. I thought that Cancer was?

[ULA]

Under the Equality Act 2010, employees with cancer are protected from discrimination in the workplace, from the point of diagnosis and even after treatment and they have returned to work.

[brass]

Thanks, thats what I thought. I wonder why the employer would deny that the employee had a disability under the equality act in the ET3 when they had all the doctors notes and return to work from haemotology.

[ULA]

I really am not sure unless, if they are a small employer, they did not understand that the disability continues after a return to work.

[brass]

update. The tribunal have spotted it and requested an explanation from the respondents.

[ULA]

Thanks for the update. Will be interesting to see what they come back with.

[brass]

Further update - The employer was supposed to respond by 12th August 2019 to explain why they believe cancer does not fall as a dsiability under the equality act. The request was made by a judge.

Could it be possible that a response is sitting at the tribunal without serving on the barrister? Still it would be a long time for the tribunal to sit on it.

What if they simply do not respond?

[ULA]

My suggestion would be to apply to the Tribunal but copy the Respondent to say state that as of today's date there has been no been no explanation as to why the diagnosis does not fall under the category of disability under the Equality Act as determined by the Judge which should have been forthcoming from the Respondent by 12 August.

[brass]

Ok, the employer made a 4 line response to the judges question, allbeit after the judges deadline.. The employer states that after the employees returned to work with a 'complete remission' letter from the doctor they were unaware that the employee took any time off due to cancer between dec 2016 and 2018.

Initial diagnosis in 2015 was stage iv cancer. Pet scans actually were carried out in 2017 and 2018 to check.

We think that is a feeble response.

[ULA]

If, as a responsible employer they had done their homework correctly, then they should have known that even with a remission letter for the doctor the person was still covered under the Equality Act 2010.

[brass]

That is exactly what the barristers have said. methinks the employer is deliberately messing about. The legal team conducting the employers case is provided by the HR insurance provided by the bank for the past 5 years. They surely would know this fact.

It is also noted that large 'fixed charges' have been placed on the company house records for the employer, no doubt securing not being able to pay out (ie winding up). This bit being a company law issue, can anything be done about this as the employment claim preceded the fixed charges. The employer has had previous history of avoiding adverse county court judgements in other companies by doing this.

[ULA]

Well I am glad my thoughts are consistent with what the barrister has said.

The fixed charge you can do nothing about. This is likely to have been put on by a lender to ensure the asset for which they provided the loan to the company cannot be sold without the lender's permission since the debt will need to be repaid.