Hainsworth v Ministry of Defence
In this case the Court of Appeal (“CA”) confirmed that an employer's duty to make reasonable adjustments, does not extend to an employee associated with a disabled person.
Ms Hainsworth was a civilian employee of the British armed forces, based in Germany. She was not herself disabled, but she had a daughter with Down's syndrome. She requested a compassionate transfer to the UK to enable her daughter to access specialist education and training facilities. Her request was refused. Ms Hainsworth brought a claim alleging the refusal amounted to a breach of the obligation to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.
Previous case law (Coleman v Attridge Law) had held that claims of associative discrimination can apply to direct discrimination claims. However in this case the CA held that the wording of the Equality Act 2010 and Article 5 of the European Equal Treatment Framework Directive did not extend this right to and any attempt to stretch this to cover a disabled person associated with an employee is "doomed to failure".
In Practice
Kate Fretten says, "This case will be of some relief to employers, who, if it Ms Hainsworth had won, could have faced lots of claims from employees who have family members who are disabled and wanted to make adjustments to their work." There was a question mark over whether the legislation allowed for associative discrimination in terms of reasonable adjustments and it is good that this has now been clarified.
At Frettens, all of our solicitors offer a free initial meeting or chat on the phone to answer your questions. If this article raises issues for you or your business, please call us on 01202 499255 and Kate or Paul will be happy to discuss it with you.
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