Is depression legally a disability?

[RevoltingChildren]

In that would it be disrimination to sack somebody who has less than 6 months service for being off sick with depression. Does it make any difference that they were late letting the employer know they were off and have let their fit note expire.

Depends on the extent of the condition. Being classed as a disability requires the employer to make reasonable adjustments. How long has this person been off sick, or how frequently?

it can be classified as a disability under the Equality Act 2010. My bipolar disorder is classified this way.

The reasonable adjustments thing is a bit of a mystery to me though. I am not sure what the extent of the responsibility is. Iam however told the disability would make me more difficult to sack :-0

My depression is. It has to be long term though, I think, longer than 12 months

It is pretty easy to sack someone with less than 6 months service. Most probation periods are six months. Was the person registered disabled when you took them on? Did they declare their "disablity".

" Does it make any difference that they were late letting the employer know they were off and have let their fit note expire. "

I think that is fair grounds for sacking. Although you would be best to get advice from a solitor. You aren't sacking the person for having depression you are sacking them for not turning up to work without giving a reason.

People with a disablity are not unsackable.

Depression is a disability under The Equality Act 2010. Depression is classed as a 'mental impairment' However, whether your depression can be classed as a disability will depend on the extent of the depression.
Your depression has to :
i) have a long term effect- it must have or be likely
to last 12 months or for the rest of your life

                      ii)  have a substantial adverse effect on your ability to 
                          carry out normal everyday activities  (eg, if you are
                          persistently low and have little motivation this could be
                         seen  as having an adverse effect.

cont..

How long have you suffered from depression?

Is your employer aware of the extent of your depression?

Have you spoken to your employer about returning to work? Would your employer consider a phased return to work(this is important when considering reasonable adjustments).
These are some of the factors you must take into account when determining whether discrimination has taken place.

They have had depression for about a month and have not discussed anything. Just went AWOL

Are you the employer?

No I'm not it's a colleague

not good I am afraid, flowery might come and help from the legal aspect, they haven't been employed long enough to protect them for being sacked without issue, and even if they had OH input, I would find it hard to explain someone going AWOL with a medical reason, only unconsciousness and death fall into that category.
sometime mental health reason would but... in 14 years of OH I have never had anyone who didn't have the capacity to phone in or get someone else to do it.
funnily enough I have my very first case of AWOL at the moment I said to his union rep as general advice what I have said here and the rep agreed with me.

Well if they've only had depression for a month it would be unlikely to be classed as a disability, and if they've gone AWOL rather than communicating with their employer then they have done themselves no favours at all and would not be likely to have a legal case if they were dismissed.

Well that would depend on whether the lack of communication was a symptom of the illness and 'fight or flight' is often a classic sign of someone with high levels of stress or depression.

I am not saying their absence is because of this, but, it may be too simplistic to say they would have their case dismissed.

Depression is an erratic and individual illness with different manifestations and length of illness is not necessarily indicative of the categorisation of disability: there are other factors.

If you are a colleague, how do you know for certain this person has not been communicating with their employers?

I was asked if I had heard anything and we had a discussion about what to do over the sick note running out with regards to paying SSP.

There have been some problems in the past over ringing in sick do I was asked a couple of months ago to type a memo about the correct procedure eg inform a manager in the office you are sick not just one of your mates.

This colleague didn't ring in so the boss phoned their partner after a couple of days then a sick note was posted to the office. When it ran out a few days passed before a second was posted. This one ran out a week ago and no-one has heard from them.