An employer who did not adapt the sickness absence trigger point
for a disabled employee failed to make reasonable adjustment.
THE FACTS
Miss Ward suffers from ME/Chronic fatigue syndrome and
considered disabled for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010.
Occupational health advised her employer, Northumberland Tyne &
Wear NHS Foundation Trust, on several occasions Miss Ward was
likely to have a higher number of sickness related absences than
other employees. Her employer's sickness absence management
policy includes "trigger points" that result in the
application of various stages of sickness absence monitoring. The
trigger points during Miss Ward's employment included "3
periods of absence within a 12-month rolling period...". For
four years, from 2011, the Trust made an adjustment to the trigger
points for Miss Ward so that she could have up to five absences in
a 12 month period before triggering the policy, rather than three
absences. This adjustment seemed to
