Employee wins tribunal case over ADHD

A woman has secured a partial victory over the company she used to work for in a case that revolved around her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), providing a useful lesson for HR.

Bahar Khorram was employed by Capgemini UK, an IT company. She was with the firm for six months on a probationary basis and was given work to complete that involved multitasking and tight schedules. She spoke to her line manager in September of 2023 about an extension or work reduction on the grounds of ADHD issues. Following disagreements over work and training, she left the company a couple of months later.

Khorram then went on to sue Capgemini on several grounds, including its failure to introduce neurodiversity awareness training and harassment due to her disability. The tribunal upheld the first of those claims, but rejected the others.

The case is already leading to discussion about what companies can do to avoid similar legal action. Sarah Tancell from the Neuro-D neurodiversity consultancy said that HR should provide employees and managers with relevant content through blogs and videos.

She also suggested that team meetings could be useful times for introducing neurodiversity awareness. Tancell concluded by stating that the case was a reminder to employers that training of this kind is an Equality Act obligation.

Implementing training programmes is a responsibility of HR, which raises questions for smaller firms that do not have HR departments. Outsourcing to employee HR services would enable them to meet their legal obligations to ensure that all of their employees are supported.