ET should have considered the issue of redeployment as a matter of course

In Bugden v Royal Mail Group Ltd [2024] EAT 80 the claimant, who had been dismissed as a result of periods of ill-health absence over a number of years, contended that the employment tribunal should itself have raised the possibility of redeployment both as a potential reasonable adjustment under EqA 2010, s 20 and in relation to its determination of the fairness of the dismissal under ERA 1996, s 98(4). This issue had not been argued by the claimant before the employment tribunal and was not referred to in the list of issues.

The EAT held that the tribunal:

• had not erred in failing to raise redeployment as a potential reasonable adjustment with the parties as it was not an issue which ‘shouted out’ from the material before it, but
• had erred in failing to consider the issue of redeployment, as an alternative to dismissal, when determining the fairness of the dismissal as this was a sufficiently well-established principle that it should have addressed as a matter of course even though it had not been raised by the parties.

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