PEOPLE AND CULTURE

NEWS

Receptionist with ‘phobia of people’ was unfairly dismissed

30 Jun 2021

    • An NHS receptionist who claimed she was unfairly dismissed over her phobia of the public has won more than £56,000 at an Employment Tribunal.

    Sacramenta D’Silva worked as a receptionist at Croydon Health Services for 18 years but claimed she was “petrified” of working with members of the public. She asked to be moved to the appointments booking team in the back office, but bosses insisted her role was patient-facing.

    D’Silva was forced to take time off after suffering from stress and anxiety. The hearing was told she returned to work in 2017 following a long absence and believed she was going to be offered a role in the back office as part of a phased return. However, she learned that this role was only temporary and that she would eventually be returned to a face-to-face reception role.

    The Tribunal was told that one manager remarked: "I do not know if there is a resolution as [she] does not want to carry out the role she is employed to do."

    She went on sick leave again in 2018 after it was made clear the job was “100% patient facing" and she would have to be redeployed. She was dismissed for being unable to do the job.

    Ruling that D’Silva was unfairly dismissed, Anna Corrigan, an employment judge, said:

    "The (trust) had the duty to make reasonable adjustments or... to take reasonable steps to investigate alternative work. No one from the trust identified potential suitable vacancies or discussed them with Mrs D'Silva. Had vacancies been identified to her and she had been supported to be redeployed into one of them, the likelihood is that she would have returned to work much earlier.”

    Reasonable adjustments apply to all workers, including trainees, apprentices, contract workers and business partners. It is the employer’s duty to ensure that any workers with physical or mental disabilities are able to carry out their work without disadvantage.

    Factors that need to be considered include:

    • The size of the employer – a large organisation may have greater means.

    • Whether the adjustment is practical to make.

    • Whether the disadvantage noted in the workplace would be successfully overcome by the adjustment.

    • How the adjustment could affect other workers, for example their health and safety.