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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal >> Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Job Centre Plus) & Ors v Wilson [2010] UKEAT 0289_09_1902 (19 February 2010) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2010/0289_09_1902.html Cite as: [2010] UKEAT 0289_09_1902, [2010] UKEAT 289_9_1902 |
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At the Tribunal | |
On 2 December 2009 | |
Before
HIS HONOUR JUDGE BIRTLES
MR B BEYNON
MR S YEBOAH
(JOB CENTRE PLUS) AND OTHERS |
APPELLANT |
RESPONDENT |
Transcript of Proceedings
JUDGMENT
For the Appellants | MR DESHPAL PANESAR (of Counsel) Instructed by: Messrs Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP 35 Vine Street London EC3N 2AA |
For the Respondent | MS ANNA MACEY (Representative) Free Representation Unit 6th Floor 289-293 High Holborn London WC1 7HZ |
SUMMARY
DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION: Reasonable adjustments
The Employment Tribunal erred in law in failing to properly apply s. 18B of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to the evidence and to make the necessary findings of fact about reasonable adjustments: Smiths Detection – Watford Ltd v Berriman (UKEAT/0712/04/CK) and Romec Ltd v Rudham (UKEAT/0069/DA) applies.
HIS HONOUR JUDGE BIRTLES
Introduction
(i) In seeking to redeploy the Claimant, a disabled person with an underlying psychological condition that interfered with her ability to leave her home on her own and caused symptoms of panic and anxiety should she do so unaccompanied, to the extent that she had difficulty, at times, crossing the road from her home to her existing place of work, the Respondent was applying a provision, criterion or practice which placed her at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who were not disabled;(ii) The employer failed to take such steps as were reasonable, in all the circumstances of the case, for it to have to take in order to prevent the provision, criterion or practice, or feature, having that effect;
(iii) Accordingly the failure to make reasonable adjustments was such that the Respondent had discriminated against the Claimant on grounds of her disability.
The Material Facts
"I have panic attacks and am unable to enter into new situations without the presence of someone I trust."
The Appellant accepted that the Respondent's condition amounted to a disability for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 as amended.
"unable to travel to work - could work at home."
(i) The Respondent's line manager from NEAT accompanying her to her new office, to introduce her to the new staff that she would be working with and reduce the anxiety of a new location;(ii) Paying for a taxi to take the Respondent to and from work so that she would not have to travel by public transport. The Respondent indicated that she did not want to travel by taxi as her house had once been burgled when she travelled by taxi and she believed the taxi driver or firm was responsible for the burglary. No person was ever charged with the burglary;
(iii) Transferring the Respondent to work at an office in Covoalt House and to change her working pattern to coincide with that of her partner who also worked for the Appellant;
(iv) Having a work colleague accompany the Respondent to and from work;
(v) Engaging and paying for a support worker to pick the Respondent up in the morning in a taxi and to take her to and from work;
(vi) A further referral to the Appellant's Occupational Health Department to assess the current state of the Respondent's condition.
The Employment Tribunal's Conclusions
"23. Whatever else can be said about this case, it is categorised by delay, and obfuscation, the passing of the buck between different managers at various levels involving either the inability or the unwillingness of management to get hold of the problem and address it properly and provide a timeous response to the claimant's request for reasonable adjustments.
24. The decision at the end of the day that the adjustment which the claimant sought was one which could not be provided at her grade was a decision that could have been made at the very beginning. Had it been so made, then it is possible, and we can do no more that postulate that possibility, that the claimant would have been more receptive towards discussing the matter with the respondents to see if some other adjustment could have satisfied her need. As it is, by the time the respondent was talking about arrangements for transport to work, the damage had already been done by the failure to deal promptly and properly with the claimant's request. The steps taken ultimately to make enquiries around the wider Department for Work and Pensions were, in the Tribunal's view, ones more aimed at defending the claimant's likely proceedings than they were at finding a just solution.
25. There appears to have been no consideration as to whether the claimant, who was clearly a valuable employee, who was giving good service, could be accommodated were it to be accepted that she could properly work at a higher level. Nor, in all the circumstances of the case, is the Tribunal convinced by the arguments put forward for the respondent that home working was not a possibility for someone at her grade. The Tribunal considers that if the answer had been as simple as that it would have been made in the first instance, not many many months after the request was made.
26. Accordingly the Tribunal is satisfied that the provisions of section 4A of the DDA do impose a duty on the employer in the circumstances of this particular case and that again given the long and tortuously slow procedure followed by the respondent, the employer had not taken such steps as were reasonable, in all the circumstances of the case, for it to have to take in order to prevent the arrangements or feature having the effect of placing the disabled person concerned at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who were not disabled.
27. This respondent was well aware of the nature of the claimant's disability and was aware from the very beginning of this proposal to close the office where she worked. The tardy and inadequate way in which it dealt with her request was such that it had not taken such steps as were reasonable, in all the circumstances of the case, and accordingly we find that the respondent has discriminated against the claimant on grounds of her disability."
The Law
"4A Employers: duty to make adjustments.
(1) Where -
(a) a provision, criterion or practice applied by or on behalf of an employer, (or)
(b) any physical feature of premises occupied by the employer,
places the disabled person concerned at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who are not disabled, it is the duty of the employer to take such steps as it is reasonable, in all the circumstances of the case, for him to have to take in order to prevent the provision, criterion or practice, or feature, having that effect."
The remainder of section 4A is not relevant.
"18B Reasonable Adjustments: Supplementary
(1) In determining whether it is reasonable for a person to have to take a particular step in order to comply with a duty to make reasonable adjustments, regard shall be had, in particular, to-
(a) the extent to which taking the step would prevent the effect in relation to which the duty is imposed;
(b) the extent to which it is practicable for him to take the step;
(c) the financial and other costs which would be incurred by him in taking the step and the extent to which taking it would disrupt of any of his activities;
(d) the extent of his financial and other resources;
(e) the availability to him of financial or other assistance with respectto taking the step;
(f) the nature of his activities and the size of his undertaking;
(g) where the step would be taken in relation to a private household, the extent to which taking it would -
(i) disrupt that household, or
(ii) disturb any person residing there."
"85. In our opinion an Employment Tribunal considering a claim that an employer has discriminated against an employee pursuant to Section 5(2) of the Act by failing to comply with the Section 6 duty must identify:
(a) the relevant arrangements made by the employer
(b) the relevant physical features of the premises occupied by the employer
(c) the identity of non-disabled comparators (where appropriate) and
(d) the nature and extent of the substantial disadvantage suffered by the Claimant. It should be borne in mind that identification of the substantial disadvantage suffered by the Claimant may involve a consideration of the cumulative effect of both "arrangements" and "physical features" so it would be necessary to look at the overall picture."
In our opinion an Employment Tribunal cannot properly make findings of a failure to make reasonable adjustments under section 5(2) without going through that process.
86. Unless the Employment Tribunal has identified the four matters we have set out above it cannot go on to judge if any proposed arrangement is reasonable. It simply is unable to say what adjustments were reasonable:
"To prevent the arrangements or feature placing the Claimant at a substantial disadvantage."
… It is wrong, in our opinion for the Employment Tribunal to have simply based the finding that the adjustments would have been effective as it appears to have done, on the fact that these were what the Claimant wanted."
The Notice of Appeal
Ground One: Failure to Have Regard to Section 18B
(i) There was no evidence before the Tribunal that such a role existed;(ii) The Claimant's former role and the work of NEAT generally, had ceased to exist;
(iii) It was established that there were no roles within the Respondent's wider organisation. Notwithstanding criticisms by the Tribunal of the search for such a role no such role was identified or found to exist. Ms Sheilah Patten's evidence in this regard is set out at paragraph 22 of her statement: EAT bundle page 101. Her evidence (which was unchallenged) was that after her search there were no roles found to be suitable for home working. She says this:
"23. The following business units within the Department were approached by a member of the HR team and asked whether they had sufficient duties to accommodate an employee working from home:(a) Work Welfare Equality Group (WWEG)(b) Group Finance(c) PSD(d) Information Directorate(e) The International Pension Service(f) The Child Support Agency Operation(g) Pensions Local Service(h) Child Support Agency Central Directorate(i) Pension Central Directorates(j) Seaham Pension Centre and London Pension Centre(k) Pensions FPD(l) Employee Services Resourcing(m) National Pension Centre(n) The Rent Service(o) Shared services - Internal HR."
"10. On receiving the request from Sheila and Lesley, I considered the full range of Administrative Officer/Band B job roles within the Job Centre Plus Job Roles Catalogue to determine whether the Department could accommodate Joan's request to carry out her duties from home.
11. The role of Band B and Band C employees at Job Centre Plus involves meeting with the public on a day to day basis. Job seekers attend at the Job Centre Plus Jobcentre with the Jobcentre Plus employees to discuss available job opportunities in their search for employment. The employees then complete the paperwork of that interview and record the details on the Jobcentre Plus internal computer system.
12 In accordance with the conditions of the Jobseekers Allowance benefit, individuals receiving the benefit must attend in person at the Jobcentre on a fortnightly basis or, if a postal claimant, less frequently. Joan could not have conducted these face to face interviews from her home. Furthermore, it is not possible for the interview to be conducted by phone as the Jobseeker would have been in breach of the condition to attend the Jobcentre in person. As such, it was not possible to offer Joan a Band B or C position in the Jobcentre Plus Jobcentre which included meeting with customers. Furthermore, there are no purely 'back of house' roles in Jobcentre Plus for Band B employees. All job roles involve a degree of client contact (and the resulting back of house administration tasks after the interview).
13. I also considered whether it would be possible to arrange a system whereby Joan was sent the paper files on a daily basis in order to attend to the back of house component. However, this would involve sending highly confidential information to Joan by courier each day, and having the information sent back by Joan at the end of the day. From a practical perspective, I assessed the risk that the confidential information could be lost by a courier company was high. The possibility of arranging an employee to drop off the paper files to Joan was also considered. However, I took into account the additional cost to the Department of such an arrangement and the impact on an employee of the Department of incurring these extra daily duties. Furthermore, the work that Joan could do on such files was limited because she would not have first hand knowledge of the interview content and the delay in processing any paperwork that the customer required would provide a poorer level of customer service than if done within or at the end of the face to face interview."
(i) There were no such vacancies either within Jobcentre Plus or the wider departments of the Respondent nor was it practicable to create such a role for the Claimant.(ii) The work that was available required working with and making decisions about confidential public matters and information, and required supervision, which could not be provided in the Claimant's home.
(iii) Such work required contact with the public which the Claimant was unable to do and could not be done from her home.
(iv) The work (including benefits work), even if it did not involve customer contact, required reference to files containing confidential information about the public. These files have to be stored in the Respondent's premises centrally not only for confidentiality reasons but also for reference by other staff. There was clear evidence from Ms Angi Nicholson on the feasibility of transporting that documentation to and from the Claimant's home.
(i) It failed to have regard to the extent to which it would be practicable for the Respondent to take the steps suggested as amounting to a reasonable adjustment, namely home working, which on the evidence before the Tribunal was not practicable; and(ii) Did not make a clear finding with regard to the feasibility of home working.
Ground Two: Failed to have regard to Section 18B and failed to make findings of fact or give reasons about central issues in the case
(i) Paying for a support worker to accompany the Claimant to and from work;(ii) Paying for taxi transportation to and from work;
(iii) The Claimant's line manager to accompany her to her new office and introduce her to colleagues;
(iv) A colleague to accompany the Claimant to and from work.
See paragraph 34 of the witness statement of Ms Lesley Widdowson: EAT bundle pp. 111-112.
Ground Three: No Consideration of Work at a Higher Level
"There appears to have been no consideration as to whether the Claimant, who was clearly a valuable employee, who was giving good service, could be accommodated were it to be accepted that she could properly work at a higher level."
(i) Both Band C and D roles were management roles, with Band D employees managing other managers.(ii) The Claimant had applied for and failed in her application for a permanent Band C role.
(iii) Band B and C roles normally involved dealing with the public.
Ground Four: Finding at Paragraph 24
Ground Five: Co-operation of the Claimant
Ground Six: The Northumbria Senior Management Team
Conclusion and Disposal