Employment tribunal addresses adjustment of redundancy criteria for disabled persons

The extent to which the Equality Act 2010 imposes a duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments to their practices to prevent putting disabled persons at a disadvantage was considered in a recent employment tribunal.

In Lancaster v TBWA Manchester a dispute occurred as to how far, if at all, redundancy selection criteria should be adjusted for a disabled employee.

As a result of a downturn in workload, the claimant and two other employees were under threat of redundancy. Measured against redundancy criteria, the claimant scored significantly lower than the other two employees.

After hearing the facts of the case, the tribunal ruled that the employer did not breach its duty to adjust practices for disabled employees.

The decision was upheld after an appeal.

Figures from the Employer's Forum on Disability (EFD), published by Personnel Today, reveal one in eight UK workers has a disability, although many of are not declared.

A mistake when forming redundancy selection criteria or redeployment plans when dealing with disabled workers can mean large sums of uncapped damages for companies, in addition to untold harm to a firm's reputation.  

Published by Phil Hammond