In a recent tribunal case, a registered blind employee has won a claim for disability discrimination after his new employer dismissed him for errors and accidents after they failed to make reasonable adjustments to support him.

Mr Stanley had been employed as a night shift operative at The Village Bakery (Wrexham) but was dismissed after six weeks due to performance issues; notably near misses such as almost hitting colleagues with trollies and bumping into machinery. He was also struggling to hit productivity targets and dropped trays of bread.

At tribunal, Mr Stanley argued the company had not made reasonable adjustments in light of his sight impairment. He explained that they had failed to offer a longer probation period to enable him to adjust to the new role and new location. He claimed the company failed to offer a support worker and did not inform colleagues about his disability. 

The company claimed Mr Stanley had been assigned a “buddy” but the tribunal found no evidence for this other than that he worked alongside a colleague. The company also informed Mr Stanley that it could not afford to provide a support worker to work alongside him but provided no evidence they could not accommodate the additional salary costs. The tribunal found that no one assisted or supported Mr Stanley by explaining his errors or helping familiarise him with the processes.

The company’s defence was based on health and safety concerns. This was rejected by the tribunal which found that Mr Stanley had worked in factories for 18 years before joining The Village Bakery and the company had not conducted a health and safety assessment. 

The tribunal found that the dismissal was not justified. The company had not made reasonable adjustments to enable him to remain in the role. It found that the company should have given Mr Stanley more time to learn the role, allocated a support buddy and raised awareness amongst his team members of his disability and needs. Mr Stanley is claiming £112,000 in compensation.

Proactively consider reasonable adjustments for disabled employees.

A disabled employee does not need to raise the need for adjustments or challenge feedback on performance. The onus is on the employer to take the initiative and consider adjustments with a disabled employee.

Meet regularly with disabled employees to discuss the adjustments they need to succeed in their role.

Allow sufficient time for adjustments to “bed in” and regularly review they are working and they remain appropriate.

In a recent tribunal case, a registered blind employee has won a claim for disability discrimination after his new employer dismissed him for errors and accidents.

Registered blind employee dismissed during probation wins discrimination claim

The HSE has recently published their work-related fatal injuries statistics for 2024.

Figures show that 138 workers were killed in work-related accidents. 

We have a wide range of health and safety awareness and management courses, take a look 

Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain 2023/24

Health and Safety Executive statistics for 2024

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SSG partners with Staff Squared - HR software for small businesses

There is no fixed period of time that an employer needs to let pass before they can recruit into a position that was previously made redundant. 

Employers do need to consider if recruiting to a role that was made redundant would undermine the fairness of the original decision to dismiss, and if the ex-employee would regard the reason for their dismissal to be fair or genuine if the company recruits too soon.  

We would recommend a minimum timeline of three months before recruiting into the role. This corresponds with the three-month limitation period for an ex-employee to raise a tribunal claim.

However each situation does need to be considered on the facts of the case. Take for example a situation where an employer has had a decline in orders and work volumes and decides to reduce headcount and make a role redundant. If a month after the redundancy a new order is won and work volumes ramp back up then it almost certainly going to be reasonable for that employer to recruit into a post that was recently made redundant.  