Disability charity is ordered to pay £150,000 to disabled worker with lengthy Covid who wanted ‘micro breaks’ and Tai Chai periods to return to work
A disability charity has been ordered to pay more than £150,000 to a worker with long Covid and Crohn’s disease who it discriminated against – due to his disability.
William Drysdale-Wood worked as a shared lives coordinator at Shared Lives South West for eight years before he was dismissed on the grounds of ill health in September 2023.
The company was aware that Mr Drysdale-Wood, from Newquay, Cornwall, had Crohn’s disease and would likely need some sickness absence from the outset of his employment in 2015.
During the pandemic, he was forced to shield due to being on immunosuppressant medication and in November 2022 was diagnosed with long Covid and chronic fatigue.
Mr Drysdale-Wood was signed off sick for two months until January 2023. He had a phased return to work, with an occupational health report highlighting ‘the value of micro-breaks and tai chi’.
But after another period of absence from June 28 to July 14, 2023, the employee was invited by management to a meeting ‘to discuss the next steps’.
It was then when he received an email notifying him of the termination of his employment on the grounds of ill-health.
But Mr Drysdale-Wood successfully sued Shared Lives South West, winning on claims of disability discrimination and unfair dismissal. The charity was ordered to pay £152,745.41.
William Drysdale-Wood (pictured) was unfairly dismissed by Shared Lives South West, which was later found to be disability discrimination
Mr Drysdale-Wood was an employee of Shared Lives South West since September 2015 and was unfairly sacked eight years later
He also contracted the virus in January 2022.
Mr Drysdale-Wood was diagnosed with long Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) in September 2022 and, on medical advice, took an extended period of absence from November 2022 to January 2023.
He was a disabled person on account of long Covid from February 2023, generally defined as symptoms persisting for three months or more.
The condition – said to affect 1.8 per cent of the UK population – can affect and damage organ systems, leading to severe or long-term impacts and a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, brain fog, breathlessness and pain.
The worker had a phased return to work, with an occupational health report in March noting ‘the value of micro-breaks and tai chi and homeworking to minimise the risk of infection’.
Mr Drysdale-Wood’s workload could be measured by the number of ‘units of support’ he undertook, as discussed with team leader Mr Edward Bunce-Philips.
His caseload was around 42 units in June 2023, compared to the 55 units of support Shared Lives South West considered a full time caseload.
An occupational health report found in August he had been absent for 60 days in the previous 12 months, or nearly 17 per cent of the year.
On September 6 2023 Mr Drysdale-Wood attended a capability meeting to discuss the workload and potential absence moving forward.
He was warned there was a ‘potential’ that his workload may need to increase, but he disagreed with the company’s suggestion that he was ‘in a position to consider a full-time workload’.
Mr Drysdale-Wood attended another capability meeting on September 14 2023, where the company said they could allow two to three days of absence in the next three months.
He was sacked the next day after eight years in the role via an email, which stated it was because of his ‘ill-health’.
The company’s people and culture leader Laura Maker said there was ‘a high probability of continued unsustainable levels of absence’ and they could no longer support his reduced workload.
Mr Drysdale-Wood filed a grievance to the decision, but it was not upheld.
The worker told the tribunal the discriminatory sacking had a ‘devastating’ impact on his health and his relationship with his children.
Employment Judge Edmund Beever said: ‘The timeline for the capability process was remarkably brief. [Mr Drysdale-Wood] was invited to a meeting on September 6 September 2023 and was subsequently dismissed immediately following a second meeting on September 14 2023.
‘The process did not permit [him] to be able to show that his health was improving.
‘[Mr Drysdale-Wood] was not given any opportunity within the format of the capability process to be able to show [Shared Lives South West] that he could maintain reasonable attendance or otherwise to manage his work within the reasonable expectations of [Shared Lives South West].’
The judge found the company anticipated the worker’s workload would need to increase in 2023, but it was only a ‘potential’ need and he ‘recognised that he might need to take on additional work and accepted that he would increase his workload if the need arose’.
He added: ‘[Shared Lives South West] could have achieved its legitimate aim by less discriminatory means namely to allow [Mr Drysdale-Wood] some periods of absence going forward – even to the small degree intimated in the capability meeting when Miss Maker proposed that [the company] could tolerate two to three days in the following three months – as opposed to the harshest sanction of dismissal.’
The judge recognised that the dismissal had contributed to Mr Drysdale-Wood’s ‘deterioration in health and his consequent need for care’ from his wife.
His other claims were dismissed.
Shared Lives South West previously said in a statement: ‘While we stand by the decisions taken at the time, we acknowledge that the Tribunal has found that we did not get everything right in how we managed this case.
‘We are reviewing the full judgment carefully and will use it to help us make improvements in practices, particularly around supporting staff with health conditions and ensuring our processes are robust, fair, and compassionate.’
