header-logo header-logo

All in the mind?

12 June 2008 / Neil Allen
Issue: 7325 / Categories: Features , Public , Discrimination , Employment
printer mail-detail

Are employers discriminating against disabled working minds? Neil Allen reports

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA 1995) protects job applicants and employees whose physical or mental impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Prior to December 2005, any mental impairment must also have resulted from or consisted of a “clinically well-recognised” mental illness. This diagnostic threshold was intended only to exclude moody or mildly eccentric claimants from statutory protection. However, “psychiatry is not an exact science. Diagnosis is not easy or clear cut” (R (on the application of B) v Ashworth [2005] 2 All ER 289 per Baroness Hale). As a result, DDA 1995 did nothing to prevent employers from treating less favourably those whose psychiatric symptoms were not clinically well-recognised.

Despite having little more than “a layman's rudimentary familiarity with psychiatric classification” (Morgan v Staffordshire University [2001] All ER (D) 119), employment tribunals have been expected to assess often complex expert evidence. The Employment

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll