In McCarthy v Jaguar Cars Ltd, McCarthy (M) is disabled, suffering with depression. He had been absent from work due to ill health for well over a year when a redundancy situation arose. M was in a selection pool of 33 employees. The employer applied a points-scoring criteria.  M was assessed against that criteria, but he was amongst the lowest scores. M was selected for redundancy and was dismissed. The EAT agreed with the tribunal’s rejection of M’s disability discrimination complaints. M had not been directly discriminated against because of disability. M was not offered the opportunity for a secondment to another position because of a reason related to his disability, but because others were better trained and better qualified than he was. In addition, the employer had complied with the duty to make reasonable adjustments in the redundancy selection exercise. The employer had identified that the scoring criteria would put M at a substantial disadvantage and had made a reasonable adjustment by applying the criteria only to his pre-disablement employment record.

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