Claimant v University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust

The claimant was dismissed for some other substantial reason (SOSR), which is a potentially fair reason for dismissal. The tribunal found that, on the basis of the issues before it, having regard to the size and administrative resources of the 1st respondent, the 1st respondent acted reasonably in treating that as a sufficient reason for dismissing the claimant. The tribunal refused to allow procedural challenges to be raised at the hearing because they were not in the agreed list of issues.

The claimant was disabled by MS and dyslexia but not anxiety. There were no facts from which the tribunal could conclude that the claimant was treated less favourably because of the protected characteristic of disability.

The claimant relied on hypothetical comparators. The tribunal found there were no facts from which it could conclude that the claimant was treated less favourably because of race (described as Iraqi nationality and/or Middle Eastern and/or Arab ethnicity).

For the most part, the unfavourable treatment of which the claimant complained was not because of something arising in consequence of his disability. On those occasions when the claimant was treated unfavourably because of something which arose from his disability, the respondents showed that the treatment was a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

Although in some respects the claimant was placed at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who were not disabled by PCPs of the respondents, the respondents did not fail to take reasonable steps to avoid the disadvantage.

Any proven unwanted conduct was not related to the claimant's disability or, if it was, it did not have the purpose or effect of violating the claimant's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for him.