Teacher with sight loss wins landmark legal judgement

Employers refusing to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees are risking thousands of claims for constructive dismissal, according to a landmark ruling today in the Court of Appeal.

A Nottingham teacher who faced discrimination at work from her employer Nottinghamshire County Council because of sight loss has had her case upheld on appeal.

The Court of Appeal found that Gaynor Meikle, (57) a teacher with over thirty years experience, was constructively dismissed and should have received full pay not sick pay when she suffered her sight loss.

Her case was supported by the Disability Rights Commission and this is the first time that the Court of Appeal has found on the points of constructive dismissal and sick pay in relation to disability discrimination.

The case sets the precedent that constructive dismissal is covered by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). Constructive dismissal arises when the employer is directly responsible for behaving in a way that entitles an employee to resign as Mrs Meikle did.

The case also sets the precedent that payments of sick pay by employers are subject to the duty to make reasonable adjustments and are not excluded by section 6 (11) of the Act. So not only will employers have to make adjustments in future but they will have to pay sick pay under the DDA when they fail to do so, if the consequence is that the disabled person is unable to work because adjustments have not been made.

This ruling comes on the back of DRC figures last year showing workplace discrimination accounted for more than half of the cases supported by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) since its inception in 2000. And employersí failure to make adjustments for disabled workers made up more than a third of those cases.

Bert Massie, Chairman of the Disability Rights Commission stated:

ìThis is a very important judgement and strengthens the rights of disabled people to stay in work. The biggest problem disabled people face both in getting in and moving on in work is the failure of employers to make crucial adjustments, a failure which has contributed to disabled people being twice as likely to be out of work than non-disabled people and a ballooning of incapacity benefits claims*. This ruling will mean that more disabled employees will keep their jobs and reduce the gap between disabled and non-disabled people in work.î

In future, when a disabled employee is on long-term sick leave or at risk of a cut in pay, the onus will be on employers to provide cogent justification for not maintaining full pay for the period of absence. Regarding constructive dismissal, when employers fail to make reasonable adjustments, employees like Mrs Meekly will be entitled to resign and still be able to claim discrimination against her employer, in this case, Nottinghamshire County Council.

After eleven years at Gedling School in Nottingham, Mrs Meekly developed a disability when her sight degenerated in 1993. As she explains:

ìWhen my sight started to get worse in 1993 I asked my employers to make improvements for me at work. These involved enlarging written materials and letting me take on extra non-teaching hours for marking and class preparation. However these improvements were not made and I went on sick leave before I was suspended and was then forced to resign in May 2000. I had, by that time, been working at the school for over thirteen years and was very upset when they refused to make any adjustments for my disability despite the fact that it would have been easy for them to do so. By the time I resigned Iíd lost all trust and confidence in my employers.î

The Court found that the schoolís failure to make improvements to assist with her sight loss were a failure to make reasonable adjustments as outlined in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). As a result Mrs Meikle was discriminated against because of her disability.

The case will return to the Employment Tribunal where a settlement will be decided.