Disabled NHS worker loses tribunal claim over ‘chauffeur’ comment
A disabled NHS worker has lost tribunal claims for harassment and discrimination after her manager joked she would have her own ‘chauffeur’ due to her disability travel grant.
Lauren Phillips took Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to tribunal with claims of disability discrimination, harassment, failure to make reasonable adjustments, discrimination arising from disability and victimisation.
However, Employment Judge Matthews dismissed all of the claims, ruling that although the manager’s comments were “clumsy and tactless”, they were intended to be light-hearted.
He concluded that the manager, Lynsey Searle, did not have the intention of humiliating Phillips so the comments did not amount to legal harassment and victimisation.
Phillips started work at Addenbrooke’s Hospital at the NHS trust in April 2018, and her employer was made aware she had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, then later that she had myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).
She went on sick leave in February 2022 after a relapse, and came back to the office in June 2023 via a phased return. She was given an Access to Work travel grant to enable her to commute.
Access to Work
Shortly before she returned to the office, she had taken a five-day holiday in Lanzarote following a wedding and explained she was feeling exhausted. Her boyfriend had also moved in with her the day before starting back at work.
She had previously negotiated a later start date due to an unplanned visit to her grandmother, who had had a fall, and concerns about the impact of life events on her ME.
An email relating to her absence stated: “We spoke about you feeling exhausted due to a number of factors – personal/family reasons – travel, attending a wedding, your partner moving in with you, alongside having your first office based day in the workplace and the challenges around finding a balance between what you do in your personal life not affecting your ability to be fit to work, alongside your work not having a negative impact on your personal life.”
When she returned, Searle welcomed her back to the office and after a meeting, jokingly asked when Phillips’ “chauffeur” would be picking her up.
In her witness statement to the tribunal, Phillips said that the comment “not only violated my dignity due to the fact it was made in the open where anyone could have heard, the comments were unwanted and caused me to feel humiliated and hurt”.
She added: “I also believe that this was victimisation as my travel to work grant was a reasonable adjustment that I was entitled to and I was being bullied about having it.”
Phillips told the tribunal that she realised the intent had not been to violate her dignity, but this had nonetheless been the outcome.
Judge Matthews said that the claimant had been “angry and annoyed rather than upset and humiliated” and concluded that her claims were not well-founded.
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