Fife Council employed Mrs Archibald as a road sweeper. After surgery, complications meant that she could no longer do that physically demanding work. She could do sedentary work. The council helped her look for another post, but moving into an office job meant going through competitive interviews. She applied repeatedly without success and was eventually dismissed. What looked like a fair competition to an outside observer looked rather different to the person whose existing job had become impossible.
What did the employer have the power to change?
In 2004 the House of Lords considered the council’s duty under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The judges held that a reasonable adjustment could, in principle, include transferring an employee to a suitable vacancy without requiring them to compete. Even a difference in grade did not automatically rule that out. A recruitment policy could itself be part of the difficulty that the employer needed to examine.
The judges sent the case back to the employment tribunal. They did not decide that Mrs Archibald was entitled to any particular post. The difference matters if you are preparing for a meeting about your own job. The question is what step would address the disadvantage and whether it would be reasonable in the actual workplace. Read Archibald v Fife Council [2004] UKHL 32.
How to make a redeployment request someone can assess
Start with the work you can still do. Identify a real vacancy, its duties and the date applications close. Then explain where the existing process causes difficulty. For example, an employee who already performs much of an available administrative role might ask the employer to consider a transfer, a work trial, or an adjusted assessment. Those are different proposals. It helps to say which one you want considered and why.
Ask for the response in writing. A vacancy notice, your own job description and a relevant occupational-health recommendation can be more helpful than a long narrative about every workplace difficulty. Share medical information privately and only to the extent needed for the question you are asking.
In England, Wales and Scotland the current statutory framework is the Equality Act 2010. Northern Ireland has separate legislation. Read the current Acas guidance on reasonable adjustments. For a related question about selection criteria, see our case note on promotion tests and indirect discrimination.
For a review of a proposed adjustment, bring the vacancy details, the request and the employer’s reply. Book an individual consultation.
