Police worker wins disability harassment case

Avon and Somerset Police failed to make reasonable adjustments for a worker who was also subjected to disability harassment, a tribunal ruled.

Donna Vale was employed by the force as a victim and witness care officer on a fixed-term contract between September 2023 and May 2024.

Vale disclosed her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to the force at the start of her contract and requested noise-cancelling headphones. This equipment was not provided throughout her employment.

Tribunal Judge Edmund Beever also ruled the force was guilty of disability harassment following comments by Vale's manager about her ADHD.

A force spokesperson said while the tribunal found in favour of two of Vale's complaints, further claims - including unfair dismissal - were not upheld.

A remedy hearing will be held on 30 June when a compensation fee will be decided, but a tribunal document shows it is estimated to be about £126,542.

Vale requested the noise-cancelling headphones when she started her employment and again after her four-week review.

Her line manager, Jennie Clarke, told the tribunal that she did not refer the matter to HR or occupational health.

In her statement, she said: "I know now that I should have done, but didn't think I needed to at the time… and at no point did [Vale] tell me that the absence of noise cancelling headphones was causing her any difficulty."

Judge Beever described it as an unusual issue as Vale did have her own noise-cancelling headphones.

The judge clarified that "self-helping in such a case as this is not sufficient of itself to undermine [Ms Vale's] case".

"Providing [Ms Vale] with noise-cancelling headphones was a reasonable adjustment which the [police force] failed to do," he added.

Vale also won a claim of disability harassment. This related to statements made by her manager after a medical scare in November 2023.

She received her diagnosis through private company ADH360 in May 2023.

The private health care company has previously been scrutinised by a BBC Panorama investigation in which an undercover journalist was diagnosed with ADHD despite being told by his GP that he did not have the condition.

The tribunal heard Vale had been to her GP previously who had not thought she had ADHD, which led her to seek a private assessment.

Vale described feeling "out of it" and disclosed to a colleague that her ADHD medication was not prescribed via a GP - due to her medication being managed by ADHD360.

When she returned to work, the tribunal heard that Vale mentioned to Clarke that she was having doubts about her diagnosis due to the Panorama programme, to which Clarke agreed, questioning the diagnosis and suggesting that Vale may have been "exploited".

The tribunal was then told Clarke "repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of ADHD360 and Vale's diagnosis".

Judge Vale said that this constituted unlawful harassment.

"It was [Vale] that introduced the Panorama programme into the conversation, but that does not demand the conclusion that the [Vale] was content with a conversation the underlying premise of which was that her employer was doubtful that she was properly diagnosed let alone agreeing with her employer's suggestion that she had been exploited," he added.

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