Question of a disability

A. No. Employers cannot take a medical advisor’s opinion at face value and ignore the circumstances of the employee.

This view was recently tested in the case of Gallop v Newport City Council [2013] EWCA Civ 1583. In this case, the employee had a long history of illness. The problem was that occupational health doctors advising the employers said they believed that the employee was not a disabled person.

The employer took these medical opinions at face value and denied that the employee was disabled, without any further consideration.

The employee won his argument that it was not enough for his employer to simply rely on the medical advice of occupational health advisors to decide whether he was disabled or not. The Court of Appeal agreed and said that an employer cannot simply “rubber stamp the (medical) advisor’s opinion”.

The Court also advised that employers should not just ask medical advisors “in general terms whether the employee is disabled”, but should ask “specific practical questions to the particular circumstances of the disability”.

Ultimately, what matters is whether the employee satisfies the statutory test of a disabled person under the Equality Act 2010.

www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2013/1583.html