Tribunals yet to tackle issue of retirement age

A man who suffered a severe stroke and was then dismissed on grounds of incapacity has received £390,870.58 in damages, Wales’ highest ever discrimination award, and believed to be the third highest disability discrimination award in the UK. After the stroke, his doctor reported that he needed to avoid stress as work and he accepted that any role was going to be stressful. His area director agreed and in conjunction with HR decided that no role was going to be without stress. As a result, after 5 months sick leave, he was dismissed. A tribunal found the dismissal was unfair and amounted to disability discrimination by reason of failure to make reasonable adjustments.