Ian Smith reports on reasonable adjustments & frustration; normal working hours; & an employer’s duty to cough up for medical treatment
The first case this month illustrates the interplay between the old law of frustration and the modern law of disability discrimination, which has not surfaced before in a reported case. The second case shows that, even where only statute law is concerned, there can still be problems aligning it with common sense (if not common law); the context is the relatively abstruse area of guarantee payments, but the issue in general is one of wider import. The third case examines reasonable adjustments, showing the possible complications when one leaves the relatively safe harbour of adjustments purely to the job itself and enters the less navigable waters of wider possible ameliorations, especially in relation to medical treatment.
The interplay between reasonable adjustments & frustration
The doctrine of frustration is well established in employment law, even if in practice it is likely to be found only rarely. The case law on it is now quite old and the decision of the
