A golf club greenkeeper has made a successful claim for disability discrimination and unfair dismissal at an Employment Tribunal and was awarded substantial compensation to reflect the length of time the employee endured harassment due to his disability.
The former employee, Mr Beck, had worked at the golf club for 13 years when a new head greenkeeper was appointed. Mr Beck has an autism spectrum disorder. The new head greenkeeper instructed Mr Beck to wear a bright red helmet “for his own protection” although it was actually used to distinguish him from other employees and so that he could be pointed out to club visitors. The employment tribunal also heard evidence that the new head greenkeeper had kicked Mr Beck and violently pushed him over. Mr Beck endured eight years of harassment before taking time off sick and deciding that he could not face going back to work.
Under the Disability Discrimination Act employers have duties to:-
• ensure that disabled employees do not receive less favourable treatment because of their disabilities;
• check that policies or working procedures do not impact on disabled employees to put them at a disadvantage over an able bodied employee;
• make Reasonable Adjustments – eg changing working hours or adapting workstations. Disabled employees should be consulted about reasonable adjustments and employers should monitor any reasonable adjustments to ensure they are still effective;
• ensure that disabled employees are not subject to bullying or teasing as a result of their disability, this can be done through disability awareness training and adding a disability policy to employee handbooks so employees know they cannot discriminate against a disabled colleague.
Employees do not have to be registered disabled to be protected by the Disability Discrimination Act.
If you have been discriminated against because of a disability or your employer has failed to make reasonable adjustments, please contact either Ashley Hunt or Vaishali Thakerar on 0116 212 1000 now or complete one of the on-line forms.
