A request for an adjustment creates no requirement to make it
In HM Land Registry v Wakefield, Mr Wakefield applied for promotion to a more senior job. He is disabled due to his stammer. HMLR made several adjustments to the interview process for the post, following advice from an expert, but refused to dispense with the selection interview as Mr Wakefield had requested. Mr Wakefield brought a disability discrimination claim, alleging that the refusal to dispense with the requirement for an interview amounted to a failure to make reasonable adjustments. The tribunal found in his favour, on the basis that HMLR provided ‘no good reason’ for refusing the request to dispense with the interview.
The EAT upheld HMLR’s appeal. The obligation to make adjustments can only arise if a provision, criterion or practice places a disabled employee at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who are not disabled. If that is demonstrated, the employer has a duty to take steps to discriminate positively in favour of the employee to remove the disadvantage, but that does not require the employer to take steps to put the disabled employee in a better position than that in which he would he would be if not disabled.
The duty to make adjustments only requires the employer to take such steps as it is reasonable for him to have to take. The test is objective. It does not require an employer to provide a good reason why the requested adjustment has not been made. Furthermore, the House of Lords in Archibald v Fife Council [2004] IRLR 651 did not decide that a disabled employee who has or may have difficulties in an interview process should not be subjected to an interview at all: the question as to whether there should be an interview must be one of fact in each case.
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