The Employment Appeal Tribunal has upheld an employment tribunal’s decision that an employer breached its duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010, when it chose not to pay for an employee with work-related stress and depression to have private psychiatric counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy.
Although a decision that an employer was obliged to fund a disabled employee’s private medical treatment might seem surprising, and indeed alarming to some, in this case, it was clear that the employee’s health problems were, to a large extent, caused by her work. Nevertheless, businesses should note that paying for an employee’s private medical treatment is something that might well assist the employee in returning to and coping at work, which is what reasonable adjustments are designed to do.
A checklist that explains what reasonable adjustments are in the context of disability discrimination and identifies when a business may need to make them can be provided on request. Please contact me for further details.
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