Legal News

The EAT went some way – but not that far – in considering Equality Act issues on redeployment and pay while off sick.

In West v Royal Bank of Scotland (bailii.org) the claimant developed cervical spondylosis and became unable to do her previous job.

Part of the case related to her losing her entitlement under a long-term disability scheme after a year, when an OH consultant reported she should be able to work 20-25 hours a week in an office environment, so that she was not sufficiently disabled to fall within the scheme. The EAT said that s.15 EqA (discrimination arising from disability) potentially applied. For more, see this case on Discrimination arising from disability.

The EAT also said there might potentially be claims for indirect discrimination or reasonable adjustments as regards not retaining final salary pension rights appropriate to her previous salary if redeployed at a lower salary, and as regards losing rights under a share option scheme due to inability to make payments at the appropriate time. See Sick pay, pay protection and Equality Act 2010>Pay protection.

However, it must be stressed that many of the issues including justification and reasonableness were not considered by the EAT, since the employment tribunal had not yet considered them.