Reasonable Accommodations For Disabled Employees – How Far Must An Employer Go?

INTRODUCTION

In the past few days, there has been widespread media coverage of former Newcastle United Football club star Jonas Gutierrez's successful disability discrimination claim against his old club. It has been reported that Mr Gutierrez could be awarded up to £2million in compensation, in light of the finding of the Birmingham employment tribunal that he had been discriminated against, by reason of his disability, on being dropped following his return from treatment for testicular cancer. The employment tribunal also found that Newcastle United had failed to provide reasonable accommodations for Mr Gutierrez by not taking account of his medical related absence when considering whether he had met a condition in his contract that required him to start a set number of games over a four year period, which if satisfied, would have triggered an automatic one year extension to his contract. This case serves as a high profile reminder to employers of the dangers of