Do you make reasonable adjustments?

If you don’t, you will after reading this!

In the case Huntley v State of NSW, Department of Police and Justice (Corrective Services NSW) it was found that the employer discriminated against an employee when it acted on misinterpretation of advice about the workers medical condition.

The details were; the employee was employed for 10 years at the time, the employee was diagnosed 8 years after commencement with Cohn’s disease after various sick leave occasions.  In a further 2 years was diagnosed with Idiopathic Hpersomnolence and her duties informally adjusted and shortly after she was told she would be medically retired unless she was found fit to return to her former position.   This was based on not being able to travel for more than 30 minutes due to having to regularly access the bathroom.

Following the hearing of disability discrimination claim in the Federal Circuit Court, the Judge found the decision to end the employee’s secondment was a factually incorrect interpretation of the employees medical practitioner’s advice as she could take trips longer than 30 minutes if she was able to plan for a bathroom break along the way.

In the Judge’s view there was no consideration into the inherent requirements of the role and the reasonable adjustments that could be made to accommodate her, which is a requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

Instead of implementing the employee Doctors advice they continued to require the employee to take leave and this exacerbated the employee’s psychological condition.

The Judge understood the difficulties of the employer with an employee whom necessitated long, disruptive and unplanned absences from work which impacted on the efficiency of the work of the office and impacted on other staff they still failed in their responsibility to achieve a balance by providing reasonable adjustments.

The Judge found that the employer breached the Disability Discrimination Act, the employment contract and its own published policies in treating the worker less favourably as a result of her disability.

The employer was ordered by the Judge to re-credit her leave entitlements and pay compensation of over $170,000.

 

Huntley v State of NSW, Department of Police and Justice (Corrective Services NSW) [2015]  FCCA 1827