Adjusted scoring for disabled employees
Dominique v Toll Global Forwarding Ltd
Mr Dominique suffered a stroke. It resulted in him making mistakes at work and having difficulty with using computers.
A redundancy process ensued and Mr Dominique was selected based on productivity and accuracy criteria. Should his scores have been adjusted to take into account his disability? And did the employer fail in its duty to make reasonable adjustments even though making those adjustments would have made no difference to the outcome?
Yes and yes, said the Employment Appeal Tribunal. Mr Dominique was put at a substantial disadvantage by his employer's selection criteria, and a reasonable adjustment would have been to adjust the scores (but not necessarily to score Mr Dominique highest in his pool). Because it hadn't done this, the employer was liable for disability discrimination, attracting an injury to feelings award.
The lesson to take from this case is that it's important to make reasonable adjustments even where making them will still result in dismissal. Dismissal isn't the only detriment an employee can suffer; injury to feelings attracts its own award.
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