Duty to make reasonable adjustments does not apply to associative disability discrimination

With the scope of protection under anti-discrimination law being extended further

With the scope of protection under anti-discrimination law being extended further and further by appellate court judgments, in Hainsworth v Ministry of Defence the EAT addressed the question of whether employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for an employee associated with a disabled person.

Hainsworth is not disabled, but her daughter has Down's Syndrome. Hainsworth argued that by not changing her place of work to assist her as a carer to help with her daughter’s special education requirements, the MoD had breached the duty to make reasonable adjustments. While it is clear that associative discrimination can apply to direct discrimination claims, as protection applies to less favourable treatment “because of” a protected characteristic, which includes a disabled person associated with the employee, the issue for the EAT was whether or not a claim for associative disability discrimination could also include a failure to make reasonable adjustments.

The EAT held that, although the duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments is wide-ranging, the specific wording of the Equality Act 2010 excludes claims of this nature where the employee or job applicant is not disabled. Furthermore, while the concept of “reasonable accommodation” in Article 5 of the Equal Treatment Framework Directive allows for disabled people to participate in employment or to undergo training, the ECJ in Coleman v Attridge Law and another, had ruled that Article 5 only applies to disabled employees themselves. Here, the accommodation sought related to Hainsworth’s daughter and clearly the daughter (who was disabled) was not a MoD employee and Hainsworth herself was not disabled.

Read more

Latest News

Read More

How to avoid survey fatigue and maintain engagement

2 April 2025

Newsletter

Receive the latest HR news and strategic content

Please note, as per the GDPR Legislation, we need to ensure you are ‘Opted In’ to receive updates from ‘theHRDIRECTOR’. We will NEVER sell, rent, share or give away your data to third parties. We only use it to send information about our products and updates within the HR space To see our Privacy Policy – click here

Latest HR Jobs

As our new Director of HR, you will be at the forefront of creating the Land Registry of the future, ensuring that we have the

Support the continuous improvement of the HR function through development and implementation for all HR programs in an assigned geography or assigned business line. Lead

Support the continuous improvement of the HR function through development and implementation for all HR programs in an assigned geography or assigned business line. As

Human Resources Manager Full time role – based in our Haringey Headquarters Join a leading social care organisation dedicated to transforming lives through exceptional home

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE