Cluster headaches are classified as a disability, this was established and set in Case Law (this is were Laws get changed in court). The case was London Members Club V Hood (2001) where it was ruled that Cluster headaches fell under the Disability Act at the time. This was changed in 2010 where all the Acts were brought together under the Equality Act 2010 including the Disability Act.
This means that Cluster headaches are protected under the Equality Act 2010, Section 6 and any workplace need to show that they have made reasonable adjustments for your condition under Section 20.
The Equality Act gives disabled people rights in employment. A disabled person is defined in the Act as ‘anyone with a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect upon his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’.
In the year 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 a total of 121,111 employment tribunal applications were made. This compares to 109,685 the previous year and 88,461 in 2016/17. So despite there having been no tribunal fees to be paid in the last year there is still a long way to go to get to the pre fee figure of 191,541 in 2012/13.
The detail of the statistics makes for interesting reading - while some of the maximum awards made have increased, the average level of awards have continued to fall with the exception of age discrimination. The highest sum awarded in an employment tribunal claim in the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 was £947,585 and was, once again, awarded in an unfair dismissal claim (bear in mind that the usual statutory cap of £86,444 for unfair dismissal claims does not apply in certain circumstances). The average and median awards for successful unfair dismissal claims were £13,704 and £6,243 respectively.
The highest award in a discrimination claim was £416,015 which was awarded for disability discrimination. Age discrimination was the only category where both the median and average awards increased from last year, the median increasing from £6,184 to £12,365 and the average from £6,796 to £26,148. There was though an overall decrease in the number of awards made in discrimination claims from 136 last year to 103 in 2018/19
For up to date information on your employment/disability rights, please contact: www.thebraincharity.org.uk
