Claimant v Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

The dismissal was unfair on multiple grounds: the appeal was wrongly treated as withdrawn when the claimant could not attend suggested dates and was working to find suitable alternative dates; there was a complete failure to explore redeployment outside the claimant's department despite OH recommendations and the Trust's own disability policy; the respondent failed to properly explore the claimant's mental health issues or obtain an up-to-date OH report addressing mental health before dismissing; the claimant's complaint/grievance about her line manager (which was clearly relevant to her stress-related absence) was ignored and not investigated before the dismissal decision; and the Stage 2 process was abandoned prematurely when a further meeting had been deemed necessary but the union representative could not attend the single date offered.

The claimant was dismissed because of her sickness absence which arose in consequence of her disabilities (spinal stenosis causing arm/shoulder/hand pain, and depression/stress). The respondent knew or ought to have known of these disabilities from February/March 2022 (physical) and February/August 2022 (mental health) based on OH reports, fit notes and the claimant's complaint. The dismissal was not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim because: there was no concrete evidence of operational impact despite 17 flexibly-skilled staff; the respondent failed to properly explore mental health or obtain updated OH advice; the complaint contributing to stress was not investigated; and redeployment in a large Trust was not explored. The severe impact on the claimant (loss of a job she loved after many years, setback to recovery) was not justified.

The PCP was a requirement that chemotherapy nurses be fit and well to fulfil their contractual duties, which put the disabled claimant at substantial disadvantage. The respondent failed to make the reasonable adjustment of exploring and offering redeployment outside the claimant's department from 25 May 2022 onwards, despite OH recommendations in March and May 2022, the claimant raising it, and the Trust's own Disability policy requiring managers to facilitate redeployment. The adjustments within the unit were insufficient as OH continued to recommend redeployment and the line manager acknowledged she could not avoid prolonged use of the claimant's dominant hand. The Trust is a large employer where redeployment is regularly addressed. This was a continuing omission up to termination. No adjustments at all were considered for the mental health disability.