Trial Period May Be A Reasonable Adjustment

The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) has upheld an employment tribunal judgment that not offering a trial period was a failure to make a reasonable adjustment.

Twenty years have passed since the House of Lords (as it was then) found that the duty to make reasonable adjustments may include transferring a disabled employee into a new role. However, the question of whether a trial period could be regarded as a reasonable adjustment in its own right, or just a procedure for determining the viability of the employee moving to an adjusted role, has not been clear. It was this issue that the EAT in Rentokil Initial UK Ltd v Miller has considered.

Background

The claimant held a physically demanding role with Rentokil. About 40% of his time was spent working at height. In March 2017, approximately a year after he started in this role, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. There ensued a fairly lengthy period of modifications being made to both the claimant's