UK disability discrimination law and stammering / stuttering
Allan Tyrer 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. 2021, Supreme … Read more
Equal Treatment Bench Book On 24th February 2021 a new edition of the Equal Treatment Bench Book 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 court, … 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
Below are an impact statement and other documents used in an employment tribunal case in 2020, arguing that the stammer (a severe one) was a disability within the Equality Act. Documents The documents were not professionally drafted and aren’t presented as recommended documents. However they illustrate that even with a severe stammer such as this … Read more
Stammering case with impact statement, 2020 Impact statement and other documents used in an employment tribunal case in 2020, arguing that the stammer (a severe one) was a disability within the Equality Act. See Stammering case with impact statement, 2020. Also new Proving disability page. Staff disability networks Apart from stammering networks, any network for … Read more
This campaign aims to kick-start a conversation around the negative language used when talking about stammering, and help those who don’t stammer to understand that this is just how some people talk. It uses outdoor digital adverts and social media. Do engage with the campaign on social media: stamma.org/findtherightwords. You can download ISAD social media … Read more