Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • 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

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • 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

DisabilityEquality, diversity and inclusionLatest News

Disability discrimination and extending company sick pay

by Personnel Today 13 Jun 2007
by Personnel Today 13 Jun 2007

The Court of Appeal in O’Hanlon v HM Revenue Customs has confirmed that an employer is not obliged to continue paying sick pay to a disabled employee once the employee’s sick pay entitlement has run out.

Mrs O’Hanlon, who was employed by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), suffered from clinical depression which amounted to a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA). Over four years she had a total of 365 days’ sick leave, of which 320 were related to her disability.

Substantially disadvantaged

O’Hanlon brought a claim under the DDA, contending that she was substantially disadvantaged by HMRC’s sick pay rules compared to a non-disabled person, and that it had failed to make reasonable adjustments to its policy so as to enable her to continue to receive full pay while absent. She also claimed that she had been subject to disability-related discrimination since her absence was related to her disability and the failure to continue paying her was not justified.

The tribunal held that O’Hanlon was substantially disadvantaged, but that HMRC had taken all reasonable steps to alleviate the disadvantage, including doing all it could to help O’Hanlon back to work. She appealed to the EAT. The EAT agreed that HMRC had made all reasonable adjustments and that there was no unlawful discrimination.

The EAT said that only in a very rare case would giving higher sick pay than would be payable to a non-disabled person – who in general did not suffer the same disability-related absences – be considered necessary as a reasonable adjustment.

O’Hanlon then appealed to the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal said that HMRC had not failed to make reasonable adjustments by following its sick pay policy and refusing to pay O’Hanlon for her entire period of absence. Although this treatment did amount to disability related discrimination, the discrimination was justified.


Key points


The Court of Appeal said that while a failure to continue sick pay might cause financial difficulties, an employer could not be expected to decide whether to increase sick pay by an assessment of financial hardship.

It agreed with the tribunal’s assessment that payment for disability-related absences would be a disincentive to return to work.

It also found that it would be difficult for an employer to distinguish between disability and non-disability related reasons for a period of sickness absence, and that requiring employers to treat disability-related absences differently could create a sense of unfairness.

It did not consider whether it could ever be a reasonable adjustment to make extra payments to a disabled employee, but it did see “much force” in the EAT’s statement that it would be a rare case where extra pay to a disabled employee amounted to a reasonable adjustment.

What you should do

It will now be very difficult for a disabled employee to argue that they are entitled to receive full pay for an entire period of absence once their contractual entitlement has been exhausted.

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.

Be aware that this is subject to the decision in Nottingham County Council v Meikle, which held that where the employer has contributed to the absence by failing to make reasonable adjustments, an employee may recover compensation for loss of sick pay.

This does not extend to discretionary sick pay schemes, where claims could be brought if discretion is exercised unlawfully.

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Reading the Mail is no bar to understanding diversity
next post
Sector skills council for the freight logistics industry Skills for Logistics calls on people to see it as the ‘green’ career option

You may also like

Thousands of jobs to be created in nuclear...

15 Sep 2025

A third of UK employers use ‘bossware’ to...

15 Sep 2025

Employment lawyers voice AI fears on tribunal claims

15 Sep 2025

Day one rights to make 86% more cautious...

14 Sep 2025

Barclays Bank boss warns Reeves over public sector...

12 Sep 2025

MPs probe Asda financial links with workplace lender

12 Sep 2025

Companies named for failing to report gender pay...

12 Sep 2025

Business rates rises could put 100k retail jobs...

12 Sep 2025

How to steer EDI through a ‘permacrisis’

12 Sep 2025

Immigration: ‘Hyundai factory raid is threat to US...

12 Sep 2025

  • Workplace health benefits need to be simplified SPONSORED | Long-term sickness...Read more
  • Work smart – stay well: Avoid unnecessary pain with centred ergonomics SPONSORED | If you often notice...Read more
  • Elevate your L&D strategy at the World of Learning 2025 SPONSORED | This October...Read more
  • How to employ a global workforce from the UK (webinar) WEBINAR | With an unpredictable...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 Live
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
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
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • 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