Claimant v West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority

The tribunal found that the respondent had a PCP of requiring employees to complete office-based administrative tasks from the office, which put the claimant at substantial disadvantage due to background noise affecting his concentration. However, the tribunal held that quiet spaces were available at the office, and the provision of noise-cancelling headphones (from June 2024) adequately alleviated the disadvantage. Working from home was not recommended in the Kade report and was not a reasonable adjustment given the nature of the role. The tribunal accepted that auxiliary aids (TextHelp, Grammarly, voice recorder, headphones) were provided within reasonable timescales given the claimant's absences and the phased approach recommended. The tribunal did not find PCPs relating to rigid 9-5 hours or lack of time for preparation, as the claimant had control over his diary and flexibility within a 7am-7pm bandwidth.

The tribunal found that several comments were made during a meeting on 11 October 2023 which related to disability (including 'using buzz words', 'hiding behind disability', 'clearly had an agenda', 'disability doesn't stop you coming to work 9-5', 'looking for loopholes'). The tribunal accepted these were unwanted but found they did not have the purpose of harassing the claimant. Considering whether they had that effect, the tribunal held it was not reasonable for them to have had a harassing effect in the context of the claimant's repeated requests to work from home since 2021, his failure to follow agreed process (putting reasons in writing), and his domination of the meeting with this issue. The managers were attempting to focus on the stress risk assessment and other adjustments, and their firm responses were reasonable in the circumstances.