An IT worker who has been on sick leave since 2008 sued IBM for not giving him a pay raise during the time he was off work. But an employment judge struck down the case, saying the claims did not amount to disability discrimination and that, if anything, the worker had received more favorable treatment, according to a ruling published last month.
Ian Clifford, 50, started sick leave in September 2008 for mental-health-related reasons and was still off work in 2013, having been diagnosed with stage-four leukemia, when he raised a grievance that said he had not received a salary increase or vacation pay during those five years, per The Telegraph.
In April 2013, Clifford reached a “compromise agreement” with IBM. He was put on the sickness-and-accident plan, entitling him to receive 75% of his salary until he retired or otherwise ceased to be on the plan. Under the plan, he would receive £54,028 pa until he turned 65.
But in February 2022, Clifford took IBM to ET. He said he was treated unfavourably because he had no salary increase since joining the plan in 2013. Clifford said that it was disability discrimination not to increase the payments while he was off work sick because inflation was causing the value of his income to “wither”.
Employment Judge Paul Housego, dismissed the case, saying in the judgment: “The claim is that the absence of increase in salary is disability discrimination because it is less favourable treatment than afforded those not disabled. “This contention is not sustainable because only the disabled can benefit from the plan. It is not disability discrimination that the Plan is not even more generous.
“However, this is not the issue for, fundamentally, the terms of something given as a benefit to the disabled, and not available to those not disabled, cannot be less favourable treatment related to disability.
“It is more favourable treatment, not less.” Clifford has already appealed the ruling.
