How Does An Employer Know Whether An Employee Is Disabled?

The Court of Appeal has decided that the test was not whether the employer did all it could to determine whether an employee was disabled and exhaust every option open to them; rather, it was whether the employer could be reasonably expected to know the employee was disabled.

The facts of this case are not unusual.

Ms Donelien was a court officer employed by Liberata for almost 11 years. Her employment featured numerous of short-term sickness absences for which various explanations were given (including, on one occasion, no explanation) and often no advance notice of her absence was given. Liberata referred Ms Donelien to Occupational Health in May 2009, posing a number of questions as it did so.