Case Law: Discriminatory Dismissal
In the recent case of Stott v Ralli Ltd the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that the dismissal of an employee was not an act of discrimination arising from disability. In this case the Claimant was employed as a paralegal by Ralli Ltd for approximately three months. Ms Stott was dismissed by her employer due to poor performance and was paid lieu in notice. Following the dismissal meeting, the Claimant raised a grievance against Ralli Ltd and stated that Ralli had been informed of her mental health issues in several communications. At the grievance meeting, she stated that her disabilities were mental health issues, anxiety, depression and a heart condition which she claimed had affected her performance.
Ralli rejected her grievance, stating that they had not been informed about her disabilities. Her appeal against the rejection was also unsuccessful. The Claimant then went on to bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal for discrimination arising from disability in relation to her dismissal. Ralli accepted that the Claimant had a mental impairment amounting to a disability at the time of her dismissal but argued that it had not been known about at the time and that it had only been raised after her dismissal.
The Employment Tribunal dismissed Ms Stott's claim, finding that the Claimant had been dismissed for poor performance and that the Claimant had not disclosed her impairment to Ralli prior to her dismissal. Had the Claimant pleaded her claim more widely to include post-dismissal discrimination, relating to the grievance process and subsequent treatment (when the employer had knowledge of her disability) the outcome may have been different.
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