EAT upheld decision by ET to reject disability discrimination claims relating to an interview for promotion by video conference. A claim for a failure to make reasonable adjustments was rejected on the grounds that the Respondent was found to have had no actual or constructive knowledge of the fact that the Claimant’s stammer, which constitutes a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010), meant that the Claimant had a tendency to give shorter lower scoring answers to avoid stammering. A claim for discrimination arising from disability (section 15 EA 2010) was also rejected on the basis that although the manner in which the interview was conducted meant that the Claimant was treated less favourably on account of something arising from his disability, the ET was held by the EAT to have “properly found” that the “section 15….defence of justification….was satisfied on the facts of this case” in that the interview method was found to be a proportionate means of conducting the recruitment process as fairly as possible.
