Duty to consider reasonable adjustments still applies at appeal stage

The EAT reminds us of the scope of the duty to consider reasonable adjustments in Cairns v The Royal Mail Group Limited.

Mr Cairns was originally employed in a delivery role by the Royal Mail. Due to disability, he was unable to perform outdoors duties and was given restricted indoor duties. In February 2018 he was dismissed on grounds of ill-health as he could not do his role and there were no other roles available.  The Claimant’s trade union representative raised at the dismissal meeting the potential merger of the Claimant’s office with another office, which might widen the scope for alternative roles. The dismissing officer said that there was no date set for the merger and, in any event, it might even reduce the number of jobs available. 

The Claimant appealed against dismissal and his appeal was heard in May 2018. The Claimant made the point that the anticipated merger would be taking place in four weeks’ time and that his dismissal should be delayed pending the imminent merger as that was likely to create alternative indoor roles that he could do. The appeal officer did not agree and upheld the dismissal.

The Claimant claimed that it would have been a reasonable adjustment to keep him in employment and defer a dismissal decision until the outcome of the merger in June 2018 was known. The Tribunal rejected this claim.

On appeal, the EAT found that the Tribunal had not adequately addressed the Claimant’s argument on this point and the claim for a failure to make reasonable adjustments at the appeal stage was therefore remitted to a fresh Tribunal to make a decision on this point.

This is a reminder that claims for failures to make reasonable adjustments can arise at any stage of the employment and, in the case of a dismissed employee, at appeal stage.