The five claimants in this case had all received warnings over their sickness levels and all were disabled under the definitions contained in the GB Equality Act. Warnings for absence disentitled all employees to a £900 bonus payment and, unlike cases involving misconduct warnings, there was no discretion for managers in relation to warnings for sickness absence. 

The EAT agreed with the tribunal that there was a causal link between the claimants' disability and their warnings for absence and that the inflexibility of the scheme in relation to warnings for absence made it harder for the employers to justify the less favourable treatment of the disabled employees.

NOTE - the reasoning in this case would have been different in