The EAT has held that there only needs to be a loose causal link between an employee's conduct and their disability for a discrimination arising from disability claim to be made out.
The employee was dismissed for misconduct after he lost his temper when he learned his employer had decided to move a course to a venue inaccessible to him as a wheelchair user. The employee's tendency to be short tempered was a personality trait unrelated to his disability of paraplegia.
However, the EAT reasoned that the situation only arose because the employee was disabled and it was therefore incorrect for the tribunal to find that the misconduct was unrelated to the employee's disability. The case was remitted back to the tribunal for rehearing.