UK: Disability - EAT confirms "normal day-to-day activities" includes general work-related activities

Employers should bear in mind that, for the purposes of determining what amounts to a protected disability, "normal day-to-day activities" will be construed broadly and will include work-related activities, at least where these are general activities common across a number of occupations (and potentially even where specialised). 

In Banaszczyk v Booker the EAT ruled that warehouse operations involving lifting and moving cases of up to 25kg were "normal day-to-day activities", applying ECJ case law prohibiting barriers that interact with disability to hinder an employee's "full participation in working life". The EAT considered that large numbers of people carried out such activities across a range of occupations, in particular in warehousing and distribution. 

The employee was required (and unable) to comply with a particular pick rate set by the employer, but the EAT rejected the argument that the activity was to achieve the set pick rate (which would not be a "normal activity"); the pick rate was just a target speed set by the employer for the activity. 

It is also worth noting that the judge (obiter) doubted whether the 2011 statutory Guidance excluding specialised activities such as watchmaking from the scope of "normal day-to-day activities" remains entirely correct given ECJ caselaw.