Tag: s15 discrimination

Cowie & Ors v Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on Cowie & Ors v Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

EAT, Eady J , Mr D G Smith and Mr S J W Torrance, [2022] EAT 121, 11 August 2022

The defendant fire service was sued by two groups of employees, the first disabled workers who had shielded during Covid and the second women who had faced disruption to childcare arrangements during Covid. The defendant permitted staff to accrue time off in lieu (TOIL) through working overtime and operated a special leave policy which permitted staff who had exhausted TOIL entitlements to request time off to deal with emergencies and unforeseen needs. Continue reading →

R (CN) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on R (CN) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Court of Appeal: Sir Geoffrey Vos MR, King and Dingemans LJJ, [2022] EWCA Civ 86, 4 February 2022

The claimant sought to challenge the exclusion from an infected blood compensation scheme of people who contracted hepatitis B (HBV). He had contracted HBV from unscreened blood in 1989 but HBV was excluded from the scheme because blood donors had been screened for HBV since 1972. The claimant sought to rely on Articles 8 and 14 and A1P1 ECHR and on s15 EqA (disability discrimination). His claim failed and the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal, relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in R (SC) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions & Ors [2021] UKSC 26,  (see previous post) and ruling that any differential treatment of similarly situated individuals was justifiable given the intensity of review appropriate to judgments of social and economic policy notwithstanding the fact that disability discrimination was alleged. Continue reading →

Judd v Cabinet Office

Posted on | by Aileen McColgan KC | Leave a Comment on Judd v Cabinet Office

EAT: Jason Coppel QC, UKEAT/0260/20/AT, 9 December 2021

This is an interesting case in which the EAT rejected an appeal from a finding that the claimant had not been discriminated against because of something arising in consequence of her disability (s15 EqA), or denied reasonable adjustments (s20(3) EqA) when an offer of a secondment in Montenegro was withdrawn on health grounds. The claimant had been the victim of a crime shortly before having been offered the secondment and had had to attend A&E twice thereafter with significant health issues as a result, but refused to make full disclosure of her health condition. A tribunal dismissed her claim on the basis that the adjustments she sought would leave her at risk and that it was reasonable for the employer to withdraw the secondment offer. The situation was complicated by the claimant’s refusal to make full disclosure to her employer’s OH advisers of her medical history. Continue reading →