Nathan May-O'Brien is a Solicitor at specialist employment law firm, Collingwood Legal. Nathan considers the recent rise in disability discrimination claims in the Employment Tribunal.
A recent analysis of Employment Tribunal data published by Acas has suggested that between 2024 and 2025 more than one in six workplace disputes received by Acas involved allegations of disability discrimination. This represents a 41% increase in the number of claims relating to disability discrimination referred to Acas compared to 2023/2024.
Law firm Nockolds carried out the analysis and put the increase in claims relating to disability discrimination down to an improved understanding by employees as to what amounts to a disability under the Equality Act 2010 (“EqA 2010”) and a failure of employers to ensure that there are “meaningful workplace policies” in place to support employees with disabilities.
With the latest statistics in mind, employers need to be mindful of the law and how to limit the risk of disability discrimination claims.
Disability and Employment
The EqA 2010 provides protection to employees who suffer from disabilities. Under the EqA 2010, disabilities for an employee are defined as “a physical or mental impairment”, where “the impairment has a substantial and longterm adverse effect on [the employee’s] ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities”.
If an employee is disabled (meeting the criteria above), then they have the usual protections from direct and indirect discrimination, as well as harassment and victimisation, but there are also specific protections which exist for disabled employees, being:
The right not to suffer “discrimination arising from disability” (section 15 EqA 2010); and
The duty of their employer to make “reasonable adjustments” to workplace premises and practices (section 20 EqA 2010).
Workplace policies can be challenged based on both the claims above. Indeed, the two can be interrelated. For example, an employee dismissed for repeated absences because of depression having been placed on an “absence trigger” under an absence policy may argue their dismissal constitutes discrimination arising from disability (because their absence is a consequence of their disability) and that reasonable adjustments should have been made to the absence management process to account for their disability (e.g. the triggers should have been adjusted).
How should employers react to this data?
It is important to remember that discrimination under section 15 can, in certain circumstances, be objectively justified if the unfavourable treatment is “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”. Where reasonable adjustments have been explored, this can assist an employer in objectively justifying the treatment in question.
Using the example of the absence policy above, an employer who makes adjustments to “triggers” for disability related absence is more likely to be successful in evidencing that reasonable adjustments were made, but this evidence can also be helpful should, at a later point, the employer decide to dismiss the employee, as the employer may argue the failure of previous adjustments suggests that dismissal was a proportionate response (with the “legitimate aim” being resolving long-term absence from the business). Objective justification is factsensitive, however, and will depend on the specific circumstances.
Employers should also be aware that while the Employment Rights Bill proposes no substantive changes to the law concerning disability discrimination, the proposed increase in the limitation period for bringing EqA 2010 claims from three months to six months will likely increase the number of claims. In addition, the incoming requirement for the refusal of a flexible working request to be “reasonable” will likely bring more discrimination arguments to a head.
A key consideration for businesses going forward is to understand where their policies could come under a disability discrimination challenge and to adopt a flexible (but proportionate) approach to disability related issues in the workplace.
Collingwood Legal is a specialist employment law firm and we provide bespoke training and advice to organisations on all areas of employment law.
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