Agreeing to an adjustment doesn’t count if your employer never actually makes it happen.

The situation

The claimant was a disabled plasterer working for a maintenance company. Because of his disability, he needed to work alone rather than paired with a colleague on plastering jobs. His employer agreed to this as a reasonable adjustment. Then, from 19 June 2024 onward, nothing changed. His employer never put the adjustment into practice.

What the tribunal found

The tribunal found that agreeing an adjustment and then failing to deliver it breaches the duty to make reasonable adjustments under sections 20 and 21 of the Equality Act 2010The main piece of legislation protecting employees from discrimination at work. It covers nine protected characteristics including age, disability, sex, race, and religion, and makes it unlawful for a.... An adjustment that exists only on paper is not an adjustment at all.

The claimant also brought claims about further proposed adjustments, unfavourable treatment linked to his disability, harassmentUnwanted behaviour related to a protected characteristic, such as your sex, race, disability, age or religion, that violates your dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile or humiliating environment..., and victimisationBeing treated badly because you've raised a complaint, supported someone else's complaint, or done something else the law protects, such as raising a grievance or whistleblowing. It is unlawful in its..., and all of them failed. But on the narrow point of the adjustment that was agreed and then ignored, the tribunal found in his favour. It later awarded him £16,809.42 in total, made up of £9,000 for injury to feelingsA head of compensation in discrimination claims that recognises the distress and hurt caused by discriminatory treatment, separate from any financial loss. The amount is assessed using the Vento guide..., £1,144 in interest, and £6,665.42 for financial loss.

If your employer agrees to a reasonable adjustment, they take on an obligation that doesn't go away just because nobody follows it through. Saying yes and then carrying on as before is not compliance, and this tribunal treated it as a breach.

Every other claim in this case failed, and the claimant still won. He could prove one plain fact: his employer agreed an adjustment and never carried it out. A single narrow claim can carry a case on its own if the facts back it up. That's often easier to prove than people expect. It usually comes down to what was actually said and agreed, compared with what happened afterward.

If you're disabled and your employer agreed to change something about how you work, but weeks or months have passed with nothing different, write down when the agreement was made and what's happened since. Get advice if it still hasn't happened. A claim built around a single unimplemented adjustment can succeed on its own, even where the rest of your complaint does not.