Paying Salary as a Reasonable Adjustment under the DDA

The Cout of Appeal has handed down its decision in O'Hanlon v HM Revenue & Customs, upholding the EAT's decision that an employer is not obliged to pay salary to disabled employees pursuant to its duty to make reasonable adjustments (see bulletin 7/8/06 for EAT decision).

This is a complicated decision, but essentially turns on social policy and a justification defence - ie the courts should not interpret the DDA in a way which encourages people to stay away from (rather than return to) work and, in any event, it is not reasonable to expect an employer to subsidise indefinitely its long-term sick who also qualify as disabled.

O'Hanlon v v HM Revenue & Customs