Last week there were widespread news reports on the Supreme Court’s decision that a bus operating company had failed to make reasonable adjustments to avoid a passenger who used a wheelchair from suffering a disadvantage. This was in breach of the Equality Act 2010.
The case in question was FirstGroup Plc v Paulley [2017] UKSC 4 and came about after a passenger with a pushchair refused to give up the wheelchair space in favour of Mr Paulley, a wheelchair user.
The Supreme Court found that the bus operating company should do more than just request those without wheelchairs give up a space for wheelchair users and that drivers should be instructed to consider taking other steps where there is an unreasonable refusal to move from the space, including if necessary stopping the bus to speak to the non-wheelchair user.
Under the Equality Act 2010 public service providers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments where a provision, criterion or practice of the service provider puts disabled persons at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with those who are not disabled.
In this case, the bus operator had a policy of asking other passengers to vacate the wheelchair space to allow the wheelchair user to board but if they refused then the wheelchair user would not be allowed to board and would need to wait for the next bus. Mr Paulley found himself in that situation and claimed he had been discriminated against on the grounds of his disability by a failure to make reasonable adjustments. The Supreme Court agreed with him.
This case highlights the difficulties companies can face when deciding what is reasonable in any given set of circumstances, both in situations involving employees and those involving service users.
This judgment could have wider application than bus operators and it would be prudent for those affected by the judgment to review their policies to assess whether the steps they take to require non-wheelchair users to vacate wheelchair spaces are sufficient and to ensure relevant staff are appropriately trained on the policy.
If you have any queries in respect of this judgment, one of our Employment solicitors would be happy to speak with you.
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