Reports are starting to come out from a Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) hearing yesterday on the case of Sharon Coleman v Attridge Law. This has already been picked up by publications ranging from the Morning Star to the Daily Mail, Personnel Today to Community Care.
I haven't yet seen the actual ruling, but the gist of it seems to be to uphold the view of the original Employment Tribunal that the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) protects people who care for someone with a disability as well as the people with disabilities themselves. This was in question because (as so often) UK law didn't properly implement the EU legislation, in this case the anti-discrimination "Framework Directive".
Given the numbers of people (especially women) who care for elderly relatives who would be classed as disabled under the DDA definition, this ruling is likely to have far-reaching effects in many workplaces.
Hopefully the TUC will update their helpful page on disability issues soon.
Tweet
