The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held in Gray v
University of Portsmouth that it is not sufficient for a tribunal
to say that a respondent's objective justification defence is
"obvious".
This was in the context of the dismissal of an absent, disabled
employee.
The claimant is autistic and suffers from stress. He worked in
the university's Information Service department. The university
followed their 4-stage management process but ultimately, following
a two-year long period of sickness absence related to his
disability, the claimant was dismissed and his appeal against his
dismissal was rejected. He brought a claim for discrimination
arising from disability. He claimed that the university had treated
him unfavourably by initiating a formal meeting under their absence
process, stopping his sick pay, dismissing him and rejecting his
appeal against the dismissal.
