Cass. soc., April 2, 2025, no. 24-11.728
An employee who has been recognised as a disabled worker is taken on by a company on a fixed-term contract for six months.
After the expiry of her employment contract, she brought an action before the industrial tribunal for compensation for damages resulting from discrimination against her former employer
The employee’s main complaint was that the employer had not provided her with an ergonomic chair, even though this had been recommended by the occupational physician.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the employee’s discrimination claims, holding that the employer’s failure to comply with the occupational physician’s recommendations was not sufficient to suggest discrimination on the grounds of her disability.
The Court of Cassation overturned this decision and issued an opinion of principle recalling the evidentiary regime for discrimination based in this case on disability: “the court, when hearing an action on the grounds of discrimination on the grounds of disability, must first investigate whether the employee presents factual evidence suggesting the existence of such discrimination, such as the employer’s refusal, even implicit, to take concrete and appropriate measures for reasonable accommodation, where applicable requested by the employee or recommended by the occupational physician, or its refusal to accede to the employee’s request to refer the matter to an organisation providing employment assistance to disabled workers in order to seek such measures. Secondly, it is up to the court to determine whether the employer demonstrates that its refusal to take these measures is justified by objective factors unrelated to any discrimination on the grounds of disability, relating to the material impossibility of taking the measures requested or recommended or to the disproportionate nature for the company of the costs arising from their implementation”.
Thus, the mere fact that the employer had not followed the doctor’s recommendations “to provide the employee with an ergonomic wheelchair” constituted a factual factor “suggesting a refusal to take appropriate measures to provide reasonable accommodation“, and therefore made it possible to presume the existence of discrimination on the grounds of disability.
It is therefore up to the employer to justify that his refusal is unrelated to any discrimination on the grounds of disability:
The ruling is based in particular on Article L. 5213-6 of the French Labour Code, transposed into domestic law the principle of reasonable accommodation of the workplace of people with disabilities arising from Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000, designed to ensure equality for people with disabilities.