An employment tribunal has recently upheld that an employee having symptoms associated with “long covid” or otherwise referred to as “post viral fatigue 10 syndrome” satisfied the criteria of a legal disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010.
What were the symptoms reported?
In this particular case, the employee first contracted covid-19 with a positive test on 15th November 2020 and although his symptoms were said to be very mild at first and of a flu like nature during the isolation period, he subsequently developed severe headaches, fatigue and extreme exhaustion. This had an adverse impact on his daily activities, for example, cooking, shopping and ironing. The evidence in support of the employee was accepted and not found to have been exaggerated.
Why did the tribunal make the finding?
The tribunal held that the employee had suffered with a physical impairment which had a substantial effect on his ability to undertake day to day activities and that such effect was long term.
What might the effect of this decision be?
Cases relating to covid are now being reported and might be persuasive in future cases, although, claims which refer to long covid will be fact specific and each case will be assessed on its individual merit when determining whether the definition of a disability is found.
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