Background

Under the Disability Discrimination Act (as now updated by the Equality Act 2010) an employer is under a duty to make reasonable adjustments. A question before the Tribunal in this case was whether or not such reasonable adjustments included the employer taking steps to facilitate an employee’s application for ill health retirement.

The EAT held that reasonable adjustments involve steps to enable an employee to stay in employment, not to compensate him/her for having to leave employment. Accordingly the EAT found that offering ill health retirement therefore does not fall in the scope of reasonable adjustments and the employer will not be held liable for not taking steps to facilitate such an application.

Comment

The above is a sensible decision. Lower level Tribunals often make errors of law where they over-extend the reach of the Disability Discrimination Act, which is ultimately to allow an employee back into their old role or a reasonably adjusted role. It is about facilitating reasonable steps to allow the disabled employees not to be unduly disadvantaged, but there is a tipping point, and the employer’s perspective is sometimes ignored. It provides welcome clarification of the law in this area.