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Sighing at a colleague at work in frustration could breach equality laws, an employment tribunal has ruled.
Nonverbal expressions of disappointment or irritation could amount to discrimination, a judge said.
The ruling came in the case of a UK software engineer with ADHD who successfully sued a tech company for disability discrimination after complaining about his manager’s sighing and exaggerated exhales.
Robert Watson is now in line for compensation from Roke Manor Research, the inventors of the Hawk-Eye ball tracking system used at Wimbledon, in international cricket and in football.
The hearing in Southampton was told Watson started working for the company, based in Romsey, Hampshire, as a software engineer in August 2020.
The identities of other staff involved in the tribunal were not publicly disclosed after the company raised the issue of national security given the sensitive nature of some of its projects.
The tribunal was told that Watson’s time-keeping was poor, he was easily distracted and he had some difficulties focusing as a result of his ADHD, which was not diagnosed until November 2022.
Watson began taking medication after his diagnosis and took four days off sick. When he returned to work, the technical lead of one of the projects he was working on, referred to as DT by the tribunal, told him that he had to do several days’ worth of additional work partly because of this absence.
Over the next weeks DT continued to criticise him.
“[Watson] alleges that DT questioned [his] hours of work and his patterns of work and the time he spent at his project desk and that he expressed nonverbal frustration such as sighing and exaggerating exhales,” the summary of evidence said.
Watson went off sick with work-related stress from February 2023 and never returned. He filed his claim for disability discrimination in May 2023 and was sacked in January 2024.
DT’s behaviour towards him was found to be discriminatory by the tribunal.
The employment judge at the tribunal, Catherine Rayner, said: “I conclude the reason for the expressions of frustration arose from things which themselves arose from [Watson]’s disability such as his time-keeping and working patterns and the fact that he was spending time away from his project desk.
“Had [Roke Manor Research] taken steps to identify adjustments required for [Mr Watson] at an earlier stage and provided both him and the project lead with necessary support it is entirely possible that DT would not have himself suffered with such work pressure and it is possible therefore that this discrimination would have been avoided.”
Other claims Watson made relating to disability discrimination and a claim of unfair dismissal failed. His compensation will be decided at a later date.
