Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Reasonable adjustmentsCoronavirusFit for WorkLong CovidLatest News

Could long Covid meet the definition of disability?

by Hollie Ryan 15 Sep 2021
by Hollie Ryan 15 Sep 2021 Audtakorn Sutarmjam / Alamy
Audtakorn Sutarmjam / Alamy

While not formally recognised as a disability, the effect long Covid may have on a person’s ability to work may mean it should be considered as such. Hollie Ryan looks at the support employers may need to offer staff with persistent symptoms to avoid legal claims.

While most people have heard of long Covid, it is a new illness that isn’t fully understood and can impact an employee’s ability to work or result in long periods of absence.

Employers will need to manage long Covid-related symptoms and absences carefully, as employees with the condition could be considered to be disabled and will be protected under disability discrimination legislation.

What is long Covid?

Most individuals experience mild cases of Covid-19 and can usually expect to recover in a couple of weeks. However, some people have reported that their symptoms have persisted for weeks or even months after their initial infection. This is sometimes called post-Covid-19 syndrome or, more generally, long Covid.

Symptoms are wide ranging, but commonly include fatigue, breathlessness, chest pain and problems with memory and concentration or “brain fog”. This list is not exhaustive and individuals can experience one or more symptoms. Recent ONS statistics confirm that, of the almost one million individuals reported to be living in the UK with long Covid at the beginning of August 2021, 84% first had (or believed they had) Covid-19 at least 12 weeks previously and, for as many as 40%, one year previously.

Long Covid

Study uncovers 203 possible long Covid symptoms

Supporting long Covid as Britain unlocks

More than two million in England could have long Covid

Aside from the practical side of managing employee absence, employees with long Covid could benefit from legal protection if their symptoms meet the legal definition of disability.

Is long Covid a disability?

Long Covid isn’t currently recognised as a disability under the Equality Act 2010, despite calls by the TUC earlier this year for it to be recognised as such. Nonetheless, long Covid may be capable of constituting a disability under the act if it is able to satisfy the four-stage test.

A person has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Tribunals consider four key questions to determine whether or not an individual is disabled under the Act:

  1. Does the person have a physical or mental impairment?
  2. Does that impairment have an adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities?
  3. Is that effect substantial?
  4. Is that effect long-term?

Employees with long Covid may be able to establish that they have a mental or physical impairment, depending on their symptoms. The test for whether the impairment has a substantial effect on their ability to carry out normal activities will depend on the facts of each case. Essentially, if the impairment has a more than minor or trivial effect on the individual’s ability to carry out day-to-day tasks (i.e. shopping, focusing on tasks, exercise etc.), the employee is likely to be able to satisfy this part of the test.

The more challenging question to consider is whether the effect is long-term, which means it has lasted, or is likely to last, 12 months. This is problematic as long Covid is a new illness and not fully understood. Some individuals have reported that their symptoms have persisted for more than a year, which would be considered long-term for the purpose of the legal definition of disability, but whether the individual can satisfy this part of the test will depend on the facts.

What does this mean for employers?

Employers should also be alive to the fact that, even if the employee is unable to bring a claim for disability discrimination, there is potential for an employee to bring other claims where they have a protected characteristic”

If an employee has symptoms of long Covid, employers should be careful to ensure that they are not placed at a disadvantage, given the risk that the illness could constitute a disability. Employers should also be alive to the fact that, even if the employee is unable to bring a claim for disability discrimination, there is potential for an employee to bring other claims where they have a protected characteristic. This is because long Covid has been found to affect certain demographics more than others, including older people, women and ethnic minorities. Consequently, employees could raise complaints of indirect discrimination if they are treated to their detriment because they have long Covid.

Cases of long Covid should not be treated any differently to normal sickness absence – employers should engage their usual absence management procedures and consider whether these need to be updated. Employers may also wish to educate their managers on their absence management procedures to ensure that cases of long Covid are dealt with sensitively and in line with the company’s policies and procedures.

Employees with long Covid should receive sick pay in the usual way and care should be taken to ensure that managers keep in regular contact with them. Employers should also assist employees to access health insurance benefits where appropriate.

If an employee is well enough to return to work, the employer should to ascertain what symptoms the employee is experiencing and the effect this may have on their ability to work. Consideration should be given to what adjustments could be put in place to help them return. This could include, for example, a phased return or homeworking arrangements.

Medical evidence will be key in long Covid cases as this will help the employer determine whether the employee is likely to be disabled and any adjustments that might be reasonable. Employers should also engage occupational health to assist with reasonable adjustments.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

If an employer takes the decision to discipline or dismiss an employee because of long Covid-related absence, they should be mindful of the risks of potential claims which could prove costly. Advice should be sought before any such action is taken or if there are any concerns relating to the employer’s absence management processes.

Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today


Browse more human resources jobs

Hollie Ryan

Hollie Ryan is a senior associate at Stevens & Bolton LLP.

previous post
How can employee experience tools inform hybrid working?
next post
Nursery worker asked to show less cleavage loses sex discrimination claim

You may also like

Working days lost to asthma up 150% since...

4 Apr 2025

Five years on: how has work changed since...

12 Mar 2025

Long Covid costing UK plc billions in lost...

10 Dec 2024

Long Covid: How, slowly, I found solutions that...

2 Dec 2024

Pain the most common symptom of long Covid...

20 Sep 2024

Long Covid cognitive and psychiatric problems can last...

31 Jul 2024

Study makes case for sick pay rethink to...

11 Jul 2024

People with long Covid being failed by return-to-work...

15 Apr 2024

Long Covid leaves ‘tell-tale’ traces of inflammation in...

12 Apr 2024

Covid vaccinations do protect against heart failure and...

15 Mar 2024

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+