An employment tribunal has awarded £115,000 for disability discrimination to an NHS worker with cancer who was required to undergo a competitive redeployment interview. Stephen Simpson rounds up recent tribunal decisions.
NHS worker with cancer awarded £115,000 over redundancy
In Waddingham v NHS Business Services Authority, the claimant received £115,000 after a tribunal held that an NHS trust committed discrimination arising from disability and failed to make reasonable adjustments for his cancer treatment.
Disability discrimination
Withdrawal of job offer because of epilepsy not discriminatory
Mr Waddingham was made redundant during a redeployment exercise. This involved matching staff to new roles and interviewing them.
Shortly after he started cancer treatment, he applied for a vacant position and was interviewed.
The NHS trust was flexible with the date and time of the interview, and let him take breaks at any time or call a halt to the interview.
He did not perform well and was not appointed. Later, he successfully applied for another NHS job.
He brought a tribunal claim for disability discrimination. The tribunal upheld his claim, accepting that his performance during the interview was affected by his treatment.
The tribunal held that it would have been a reasonable adjustment to assess him without the need for a competitive interview, for example via previous appraisals.
Mr Waddingham was awarded £115,056.42 in compensation, comprising:
- £73,270.50 for loss of earnings;
- £27,666 for pension loss;
- £5,625 for injury to feelings; and
- £8,494.92 in interest.
Read more details of the case and the full liability and remedy judgments…
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Grandmaster loses appeal over claim he was refused job because of Christianity
A chess master claims he was turned down for a job at the top secret GCHQ intelligence base because of his “devout” Christianity and “loyalty to God over his country”, reports the Daily Mail.
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