TW Espie v Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Ltd [2012] UKEAT/0321/12/DM

The appellant was a Balfour Beatty contracts manager, one of four in the region where he worked. In July 2009, he was diagnosed with depression. He was signed off work by reason of stress or depression from October 2009 until July 2010, when he began a phased return to work. He also suffered with an appendix problem in the same period, for which he had surgery in March 2010. It was common ground that he would have been absent from work for several weeks because of the problem with his appendix, regardless of his absence due to depression. It was also common ground that his depression constituted a disability.

In September 2010, Balfour Beatty embarked on a programme of reorganisation and