Remote Worker with Anxiety Wins Discrimination Case After Employer Refused to Let Her Turn Off Her Camera
A UK employment tribunal has ruled that forcing a remote worker with anxiety, ADHD, and autism to turn on her camera during video training sessions amounted to disability discrimination. Laura Tait, a home-based travel consultant at Holiday Extras, was awarded compensation after the Croydon tribunal found the company failed to make reasonable adjustments for her conditions.
The Case
Tait joined Holiday Extras in June 2021 and requested that two or three days each week be allocated to text-based work instead of phone or video calls due to her disabilities, which made video calls particularly distressing. Despite temporary adjustments during phased returns, the company refused to guarantee a permanent shift in her workload.
On August 24, 2023, during a remote training session, Tait asked to keep her camera off because she felt "super anxious," but was told to start with it on. She was unable to cope and had to leave the session. Tait went on sick leave in October 2023 and has not returned.
The Ruling
The tribunal found that Holiday Extras failed to make several reasonable adjustments, including allowing her to join meetings with her camera off and permanently increasing her share of chat and email shifts. It concluded that accommodating Tait would have had minimal impact on other travel consultants and that the company’s refusal left her at a substantial disadvantage.
Legal Considerations
Employment lawyers note that while the decision does not ban camera-on policies outright, it establishes that employers must consider individual accommodations for disabled workers who find video calls burdensome. The case arrives as courts on both sides of the Atlantic increasingly scrutinize how workplace policies interact with disability protections, from camera requirements in remote meetings to AI systems that penalize workers on medical leave. Compensation will be decided at a later hearing.