Shipyard worker wins disability discriminatio

A female worker from Cornwall has won a disability discrimination tribunal against shipyard bosses.

Louise Brooks, from Falmouth, accused her former employers of discrimination after she was fired because of her arthritis.

Ms Brooks started working for ship repair firm A&P Falmouth when she was 16, but was forced to stop working in 2002 after she started experiencing intense pains in her arms, Personnel Today reports.

An employment tribunal in Truro heard that, diagnosed as having arthritis, Ms Brooks spent the majority of the next four years without pay, contacted around once a year by A&P.

Ms Brooks was finally sacked in 2006 and was not offered any suitable alternative work by the company. Her case was supported by her trade union and she has now been granted an award for the discrimination that she suffered.

Mark Gray of Thompsons Solcitors, who represented Ms Brooks, commented: "Louise's working life was A&P straight from school, but it was A&P that denied her a future, and showed amazing insensitivity by offering her a typing job without adjustments."

Under the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA 1995), it is unlawful to discriminate against disabled people in the area of education, employment, access to goods, facilities and services, or buying or renting land or property.

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Date:16/07/2007 11:08:48