Where an employer knows (or reasonably should know) that an employee is disabled, it’s their duty to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate them at work. Employers must take reasonable steps to remove any disadvantage at which an employee is placed by reason of their disability. A recent EAT case looked at whether it could be a failure to make reasonable adjustments where an adjustment was raised at appeal stage.
In Cairns v Royal Mail Group, an employee was employed as a postal delivery person on outdoor duties, but a knee injury and osteoarthritis (which is recognised as a disability) meant he could no longer work outdoors. His employer moved him to an indoor role for a period while they began a consultation to dismiss him on grounds of ill-health retirement. Because he could no longer do his outdoor job, and at the time, no indoor vacancy existed, the employee was dismissed.
The employee claimed unfair dismissal. He also claimed that the employer dismissed him just before the merger of his postal centre with another centre which would have created more indoor roles. This, he said, was a failure to make reasonable adjustments and therefore his employer was guilty of discrimination because of his disability. The employment tribunal dismissed all claims, holding that there comes a time when a surplus job must end.
The employee appealed. The EAT overruled the employment tribunal saying that the employer should have kept him in employment so that he could be assigned to an indoor role on the merger of the two postal offices.
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