Disability Discrimination: Knowledge Of Disability

The dismissal of an employee may have been discriminatory even though the employer only found out about her disability at the internal appeal hearing.

The facts

Mrs Baldeh was a housing support officer at a housing association. Various concerns were raised during her probationary period which were discussed with her. Following a probationary review meeting, she was told that her employment would be terminated because she had not made satisfactory progress during her probationary period. The issues that were raised at the meeting were:

• Breach of professional boundaries by loaning a service user money without authorisation;
• A complaint from a service user about the tone of a text message which she had sent;