A senior IT worker who was off sick for 15 years has taken his employer to court for dscrimination.
Ian Clifford says he was the victim of disability discrimination from tech giant IBM claiming his salary hasn't been increased since 2008. He receives a salary of over £54,00- year and is guaranteed to receive it until the age of 65 under a lucrative health plan.
The IT specialist argued it is not 'generous enough', adding that the salary would 'wither' due to inflation. An employment tribunal has dismissed his claims, where a judge told him he was given 'very substantial benefit' and 'favourable treatment', reports The Mirror.
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During the tribunal in Reading, Berkshire, the court heard Mr Clifford - who studied at King's College London - started working for Lotus Development in 2000 before it was acquired by IBM. He went on sick leave in September 2008 and remained off work until 2013, when he raised a grievance.
Under the grievance, Mr Clifford complained that he hadn't received a pay rise and also complained about holiday pay for the five-year period. In April 2013, when Mr Clifford was in his mid-30s, a "compromise agreement" was reached and his complaints were settled by putting him on the company's disability plan.
Under the plan, a person who is unable to work is not dismissed, but remains an employee and has "no obligation to work". An employee on the plan has a "right", until recovery, retirement, or death if earlier, to be paid 75 per cent of agreed earnings.
In Mr Clifford's case, his agreed salary was £72,037 - meaning from 2013 he would be paid £54,028 per year after 25 per cent was deducted. The plan was fixed in place for more than 30 years until he reached the retirement age of 65, meaning he will receive a total of over £1.5 million.
He was also paid £8,685 to settle his holiday pay complaints in 2013 and agreed never to raise a further grievance about the same issues. But it wasn't enough for Mr Clifford who took IBM to an employment tribunal with new disability discrimination claims, mirroring his previous grievance.
He said he had been treated 'unfavourably' with no salary increase since 2013, holiday entitlement and compared himself to a non-disabled employee who would have been paid their full salary during holidays.
Mr Clifford told the tribunal with inflation now running at over 10 per cent the 'value of of the payments would soon wither'. He said: "The point of the plan was to give security to employees not able to work - that was not achieved if payments were forever frozen."
Employment Judge Paul Housego dismissed his case. Judge Housego said: "Active employees may get pay rises, but inactive employees do not, it is adifference, but is not, in my judgement, a detriment caused by something arising from disability.
"The complaint is in fact that the benefit of being an inactive employee on the Plan is not generous enough, because the payments have been at a fixed level since April 6, 2013, now 10 years, and may remain so.
"The claim is that the absence of increase in salary is disability discrimination because it is less favourable treatment than afforded those not disabled. This contention is not sustainable because only the disabled can benefit from the plan. It is not disability discrimination that the Plan is not even more generous.
"Even if the value of the £50,000 a year halved over 30 years, it is still a very substantial benefit. However, this is not the issue for, fundamentally, the terms of something given as a benefit to the disabled, and not available to those not disabled, cannot be less favourable treatment related to disability.
"It is more favourable treatment, not less."
A LinkedIn profile for Mr Clifford states he is from the Guildford area, and is "medically retired".
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