Posted: Friday 8 October 2010
Cancer Sufferer Awarded £100k Compensation
A news story this week which caught my eye was the award of £100,000 compensation for a women who successfully claimed constructive dismissal against her former employers, Clinton Cards plc.
The woman, who had recently returned to work after receiving extensive cancer treatment was told that she was only working at “50% capacity”. She successfully argued that she been discriminated against on the basis of a disability.
The Tribunal found that an employer cannot simply “turn a blind eye” to an employee’s ability (through illness) and that the employer had failed to make “reasonable adjustments” by allocating her workload to others.
The Employment Judge went further and described the employer’s behaviour to the woman as “appalling” and that it “beggars belief”.
This serves as a reminder to employers that they should be making “reasonable adjustments” for employees who have a disability or they could be faced with a large compensation bill.
