UK disability discrimination law and stammering / stuttering
Allan Tyrer The EAT stressed that in assessing whether the effect of an impairment is “substantial” under the Equality Act, the tribunal should start from the statutory wording of whether the effect is more than “minor or trivial”. The Guidance and Code of Practice do not add extra requirements; they should not be read as statutes, and … Read more
BBC Stammering Network Launched 10th June 2021: BBC launches staff stammering network (stamma.org). Added to my page: Employment stammering networks. Examples of jobs On Examples of jobs done by people who stammer: added new section Writer with numerous authors etc, added tech startup founder: Why stammering makes me a better leader (stamma.org). NHS Stammering Network … Read more
Oral assessments and presentations in recruitment Major review and update of Oral assessments in recruitment, including assessment centres and remote (eg Zoom) assessments, and Presentations in recruitment. UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement page updated for the final version of the Agreement (gov.uk) as approved, published in April 2021.`I’ve revised my … Read more
The claimant’s employment was terminated without notice due to his alleged “verbal and threatening behaviour towards management” at a meeting. Part of the problem was him speaking loudly and quickly at the meeting – he had a stammer which caused him to do this when trying to communicate under stress. The employment tribunal rejected his … Read more
The employer offered a monthly allowance to people who submitted a disability certificate after a certain date to encourage more people to do so, but not to those who had submitted one before that date. The EU Court held that less favourable treatment of some disabled people compared to other disabled people could be direct … Read more
The Supreme Court held that Uber drivers (in London) were “workers” and therefore entitled to the national minimum wage, paid holiday and whistleblowing protection. The court downgraded the importance of written documents (controlled by the ’employer’) in deciding whether someone is a worker, and emphasised that employers cannot ‘contract out’ of employment rights. Supreme Court, … Read more
Equal Treatment Bench Book On 24th February 2021 a new edition of the Equal Treatment Bench Book (judiciary.uk) was published. It is excellent that this includes four pages specifically on stammering (from page 445). Stammering was not in there before. That is now the official guide for judges on dealing with people who stammer in … Read more
Brexit Brexit and EU law pages reorganised and amended, with two new pages Brexit: Effect of EU law when interpreting Equality Act from 2021 and Ability to amend Equality Act after Brexit. This is partly to reorientate the pages to the position after the end of 2020. There is also a page on the new … Read more
A claimant who stammers argued that the employer should have made further adjustments to an interview and presentation, for example expressly telling him he had extra time, follow-up questions where his answers were unduly short, and arrangements to enable him to keep eye contact. The tribunal held that on the facts the adjustments which had … Read more
The Court of Appeal upheld the “cost plus” principle, in the sense that saving or avoidance of costs will not without more amount to a ‘legitimate aim’ in seeking to justify discrimination. However this does not prevent an employer from relying on a legitimate aim of needing to reduce its expenditure, specifically staff costs, in … Read more