Disability discrimination
Appalling injuries
Studying for my health & safety degree, I was appalled to bump into an undergraduate from another course whom I was on friendly terms with. His face was covered in cuts and bruises, his eyes swollen slits.
He looked as if he had gone several rounds in a boxing ring! I knew that he suffered epilepsy, and he explained how he had suffered a seizure whilst walking down one of the university’s terrazzo marble staircases and injured himself tumbling down the stairs.
At the time, my course had been studying a landmark legal case dating as far back as 1951: Paris v Stepney Borough Council.
Mr Paris had been a one-eyed war veteran working on a vehicle in a council garage.
Chipping away at a rusted bolt with a hammer - at a time when it wasn’t common to provide eye protection for this kind of job - a metal splinter flew into his good eye, blinding the unfortunate individual completely.
Whilst the Court of Appeal agreed that it wouldn’t have been reasonable in those days to provide goggles to fully-sighted employees, the House of Lords stated that, in fact, a reasonable employer should have taken special account of Mr Paris’ unique impairment.
You are on notice!
The reason this became such a landmark decision was because it stopped employers regarding all employees as being the same.
The Equality Act 2010 now provides a definition of disability - though if you even become aware of an employee with a temporary impairment which may not strictly meet that definition, you still have to go the extra distance to safeguard them.
Legislation
The aforementioned Equality Act defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on someone’s ability to do normal daily activities.
Employers are required to make reasonable adjustments (for example, a deaf office worker I saw who sat underneath a flashing strobe beacon linked to the fire alarm).
The aim of the duty is to make sure that, as far as is reasonable, disabled workers have the same access to everything involved in doing and keeping a job as non-disabled workers.
Failure to do so can be considered discrimination!
What could possibly go wrong?
Imagine my surprise to learn that, in March 2023, Morrison’s supermarkets were fined £3.5million (yes, you read that right) for the death of an employee who fell down the stairs of their Tewkesbury store after a suspected epileptic fit in 2014.
Morrisons - which was aware of Mr Gunn's epileptic condition - was alleged to have missed opportunities to ensure his safety.
If you’re puzzled as to why someone can suffer fatal injuries falling down a staircase, see Arinite’s October 2019 Blog: Falls From Heights.
Talk to staff about whether they have any impairments (even short-term) that could inhibit their ability to work safely, and talk to your Arinite consultant about reasonable workplace adjustments that can be made.
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