What Really Counts as a Disability at Work? (And Why Employers Can’t Afford to Guess)

What “counts” as being disabled?

Someone who needs a wheelchair? We’d probably all agree on that one.

Someone with a hearing aid or a cochlear implant? Probably a fairly safe bet.

Crohn’s disease?

You might assume that’s a much greyer area – but based on a recent tribunal, conditions like Crohn’s should be treated as disabilities, and failure to do so could leave you paying out over £20,000 in compensation, even if your employee has “only” been with you for eight weeks.

In this case, the employee had disclosed their Crohn’s diagnosis early on and requested adjustments to their employer.

But instead of making those changes, the employer: 

• Criticised their performance
• Failed to take the condition into account
• Ultimately dismissed the employee 

We gave the game away earlier, but as you probably would have guessed already, the case went to tribunal, with the panel finding that this amounted to disability discrimination and awarding the employee £22,000 for lost earnings and injury to feelings.

We’d urge you not to assume the same can’t happen to you – the stats suggest that a lot of employers are falling foul of similar cases, with disability discrimination claims going to tribunal rising by over 40% in the past year, and many involve conditions that aren’t visible – or that managers wrongly assume “don’t count”.

How can you safeguard against a similar bill?

• Treat any disclosed long-term condition as potentially protected under disability law.
• Talk to your employee and agree reasonable adjustments quickly.
• Put those adjustments in place and review them regularly.
• Make sure managers know what’s expected of them and why.

If that list leaves you feeling entirely unprepared for this eventuality, let’s talk ASAP.