A former member of staff at Capital City College has been found to have been unfairly dismissed due to her disability.
An employment tribunal heard that the London college group had failed to make the reasonable adjustment of allowing M Garwood to work from home from March 2022, subject to a review after three months.
Instead, it placed Garwood on sick leave, which the tribunal ruled was disability discrimination because no reasonable adjustments had been initially considered.
The tribunal unanimously decided that Garwood had been unfairly dismissed. Her other complaint of unauthorised deductions from wages was unsuccessful.
She received a basic award of £4,282.50, plus £500 as an award for the loss of employee statutory rights from her unfair dismissal. The financial loss incurred from the college’s failure to make reasonable adjustments was calculated as £6,682.41, plus £823.13 interest.
She was awarded £15,121.84 for financial loss from dismissal, plus £1,694.21 in interest, as well as £1,979.54 in pension losses. The tribunal also awarded a payout for injury to feelings before and after her dismissal.
Pre her dismissal, the judge awarded £8,000 for injury to feelings, plus £1,958.57. On her dismissal, the award was £12,000, plus £2,377.64 in interest. In total, Garwood received £55,419.
Employment Judge Lewis said: “The respondent failed to make the reasonable adjustment of allowing the claimant to work from home from 14 March 2022, subject to a review after three months. Subjecting the claimant to the sickness absence procedure without having first tried the reasonable adjustment was discrimination arising from disability contrary to section 15 of the Equality Act 2010. Dismissing the claimant was discrimination arising from disability contrary to section 15 of the Equality Act 2010.”
Capital City College was contacted for comment prior to publication.