The Employment Appeal Tribunal has reasserted the right of disabled people to claim that an employer’s failure to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ is an act of disability discrimination.

The law lords last year ruled in London Borough of Lewisham v Malcolm that a mentally ill tenant, evicted for sub-letting his council flat, had been treated the same way as any non-disabled tenant would have been. Discrimination had not occurred, the law lords ruled, because Malcolm had not been treated differently. Since then, employment tribunals have begun applying Malcolm, making it difficult for disabled claimants in unfair dismissal cases to prove unfavourable treatment.

However, last week’s EAT decision, in Fareham College Corporation v Walters, ruled that a disabled claimant alleging unfair dismissal had been shown less favourable treatment because no ‘reasonable adjustment’ had been made.

Catherine Casserley, a barrister at London chambers ­Cloisters, who acted for Walters, said the judgment would help mitigate the problems posed by Malcolm. A spokesman for Fareham College declined to comment until certain ‘outstanding issues’ were settled.