Reasonable Adjustments for Disabled Workers

Following the recent findings by the Employment Tribunal in the case of Mr Stanley v The Village Bakery (Wrexham) Limited, that the Bakery failed to make reasonable adjustments and dismissed Mr Stanley because of something arising in consequence of his disability, this shines a spotlight on when Employers are expected to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate disabled workers and exactly how far an Employer is expected to go to do that.

Employers should be reminded that:-

• If a provision, criterion or practice puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage in comparison to a non disabled person then it will have a duty to take such steps as it is reasonable to avoid the disadvantage. A failure to make reasonable adjustment could result in a finding of discrimination
• The duty to make a reasonable adjustment will arise where the employer knew or ought reasonably to have known that the employee was disabled and the disability was likely to disadvantage him substantially. Having colleagues complain about an individual being slow, crashing into things with trolleys, not loading bread correctly and dropping bread and not cleaning properly are all things that in this case moved toward a finding that the Bakery ought to have known that Mr Stanley’s sight was affecting him substantially
• Where an employee is dismissed or suffers some other form of detriment because of something that happens in consequence of his disability this too could result in a finding of discrimination.

In this case it was found that giving Mr Stanley a longer probationary period to adjust to a new and unfamiliar working environment, providing him with a support worker (even if that would have cost the Bakery up to £28k), telling Mr Stanley’s colleagues that he had a sight impairment so that they could be more aware of his difficulties as a well as providing Mr Stanley with a High-Viz jacket could all have been reasonable adjustment that could have supported Mr Stanley in reaching the same standard required of other employees.

This case highlights the importance of communication and having open conversations with employees that are clearly having difficulties. Gaining an understanding from the employee as to why they are having difficulties and considering together what steps could be put into place to try and support that employee and remove the difficulty so far as reasonably practicable is a much more productive step to take.  Some flexibility with your PCPs or additional costs in the beginning could support a great hardworking employee in the long term and guard against Tribunal claims.  Arming yourself with a list of issues and dismissing the employee because of them having never actually spoken with the employee about the problems or provided any time to improve will always see you on the back foot.

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