Your employer can’t take away a working adjustment on a hunch.
“Tribunal ruled for the claimant on reasonable adjustmentsChanges an employer must make under the Equality Act 2010 for a disabled employee, where without them the employee would be at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled colleagues. What coun..., disability discrimination, and unfair dismissalA legal claim you can bring if your employer dismissed you without a fair reason or without following a fair process. You normally need two years of continuous employment to qualify, though some dismi....”
If a reasonable adjustment has been working, your employer needs real evidence of a problem, not just an assumption, before taking it away.
- Ask your employer to show exactly what problem ending your adjustment is meant to solve, not just that it "isn't sustainable."
- Keep a record of how well an adjustment is working. Evidence that it caused no problems is powerful if your employer later says otherwise.
- If your employer is moving towards ending an adjustment or a capability dismissal linked to a disability, get advice before any decision is finalised.
The situation
The claimant worked for HM Prison and Probation Service for around 25 years, most recently managing responses to incidents inside prisons. He developed post-traumatic stress disorder because of workplace incidents, and could no longer be safely deployed to situations with a real risk of violence. For around ten months, his employer adjusted his role so he did not have to attend those call-outs. He worked successfully throughout that period. His employer then decided the adjustment couldn't continue, and dismissed him on grounds of ill health.
What the tribunal found
The tribunal found for the claimant on all three claims. Withdrawing an adjustment that had already worked for around ten months, without any real evidence it was causing problems, breached the employer's duty to make reasonable adjustments under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010. It also amounted to unfavourable treatment because of something arising from his disability, and made his dismissal unfair under section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
The manager who withdrew the adjustment couldn't point to any real evidence that keeping it in place was causing problems. Colleagues covering the same rota were, in the tribunal's own words, "sitting around waiting" for call-outs, not struggling under an unmanageable workload.
If your employer has let you work in an adjusted role for months, and it's been working, that counts for something. Your employer can't simply decide later that it "isn't sustainable" and take it away, purely on a general sense that things must be harder for everyone else. That is not evidence.
Ask what has actually changed. Ask your employer to show you real evidence of a problem, not a feeling that colleagues must be under more pressure. If they can't point to anything specific, ending your adjustment, or moving you towards a capabilityOne of the potentially fair reasons an employer can use to dismiss someone, covering situations where you are unable to do your job to the required standard, including through ill health. A fair capab... dismissal, stands on very little.
These situations tend to move fast once your employer has decided a change is needed. If you're facing the withdrawal of an adjustment, or a capability process linked to a disability, get advice now, before any decision is made final. That's when you still have room to challenge it.
Sharp v The Secretary of State for Justice. Case 6008906/2025. Leeds Employment Tribunal. 3 July 2026.