Stansted Airport sacked worker off sick with menopause

The former airport worker, named in HM Courts and Tribunals Service records published last month as Ms S Chan, took her former employer to court in November claiming she had fallen victim to unfair dismissal and disability discrimination.

Ms Chan said she had been going through stress, anxiety, and the menopause, but airport bosses did not accept their ex-colleague was disabled within the meaning set out in the Equality Act.

An employment judge overseeing a preliminary hearing at the East London Hearing Centre, however, ruled that Ms Chan, who joined the airport in 2008, was disabled and therefore protected by the act.

Airport - Stansted has been accused of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination by an ex-employee (Image: Will Durrant)

The former security officer had held a near-perfect attendance record until mid-2017, only ever taking off one or two days “and at most four days” for minor ailments like flu.

She was then signed off work with stress, which she said was the first symptom she’d had of the menopause, for four weeks and “mostly remained fit to work from then”, besides for short-term illnesses and two further periods of stress in 2020 and 2021.

“I have concluded that the stress that the claimant was suffering from was a symptom of the menopause,” the judge wrote.

• What are the signs you are going through the menopause?
• One in ten women have quit their job due to menopause symptoms

The ex-security officer told the tribunal her symptoms left her feeling “uncharacteristically emotional and upset over relatively mundane matters”.

The other symptoms she reported included a lack of concentration, memory loss, and fatigue.

The judge accepted Ms Chan’s three absences for stress were menopause related.

They explained some women experiencing menopause, including the claimant, meet the definition of being disabled under the Equality Act depending on the severity of their symptoms.

“I have concluded that the substantial adverse effects of the claimant’s menopause symptoms were long-term,” they said.

“As a consequence, the claimant was disabled at the relevant time.”

Airport bosses have been accused of “artificially separating out ‘stress and anxiety’ from the menopause” after failing to consider their ex-employee’s symptoms as a whole.

The judge is yet to rule if the sacking was unlawful. Stansted Airport declined to comment while the proceedings are ongoing.