Mr P Ah-Thion v Cloud Imperium Games Ltd was a lawsuit brought by Cloud Imperium Games employee Paul Ah-Thion against CIG for discriminating against a disabled worker.[1][2]
The preliminary hearing took place end of 2023, and the final hearing in June 2024.[3]
Paul Ah-Thion claims
Paul Ah-Thion initially worked from the office in Wilmslow, then the COVID-19 pandemic led to staff having to work remotely. With the end of the pandemic, CIG opened a new office in Manchester and sought to relocate its workforce there. However, during the pandemic, Ah-Thion had found that working from home was more accommodating of his disabilities.[2]
Rather than move to the Manchester office, Paul Ah-Thion asked CIG for a permanent remote working arrangement. CIG denied his request repeatedly and eventually dismissed him in July 2022.[2]
CIG was then taken to the tribunal by Paul Ah-Thion after CIG return-to-office policy had failed to accommodate his needs as a disabled person diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.[2]
CIG claims
CIG argued that Paul Ah-Thion had suffered from performance issues related to his remote working setup. It also claimed he was unable to meet job criteria such as mentoring junior staffers when working remotely. However the tribunal found that there was no specific issue with Paul Ah-Thion performance in relation to working from home as opposed to his performance generally.[2]
The Tribunal found that CIG concerns about the claimant's performance seemed rather retrospective since whilst Paul Ah-Thion was employed, CIG never formally investigated those performance concerns. The Tribunal found that if CIG had a serious concern about this performance, the studio failed to give any evidence to suggest why they could not successfully monitor his performance remotely whilst he was working from home. Normal performance measures, such as performance targets and regular review meetings, could have been dealt with online.[2]
Decision
The tribunal found that there was a failure on CIG's part to understand the nature of the Paul Ah-Thion autism. It was a condition of his autism that when he worked in the office, he struggled with his duties to act as a coach, reviewer and mentor to the junior members of the team. The tribunal found that CIG had treated Paul Ah-Thion unfavorably because of something arising in consequence of his disability. There is no evidence that working from home would have failed to achieve CIG's legitimate aim of ensuring the acceptable performance of a senior gameplay programmer. CIG has been unable to show that the dismissal was proportionate.[2]
The tribunal found that CIG could have made the reasonable adjustment of allowing Paul Ah-Thion to work from home permanently, which would have alleviated his substantial disadvantage. In refusing to do so, CIG was found to have acted in a discriminatory and disproportionate manner.[2]
CIG has been ordered to pay Paul Ah-Thion £27,748 in compensation for discriminating against a disabled worker. That includes loss of earnings totaling £14,045.31 and £12,000 for injury to feelings.[2]
External Links
References
- ↑ Mr P Ah-Thion v Cloud Imperium Games Ltd: 2406047/2022, gov.uk
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Tribunal finds Cloud Imperium Games discriminated against disabled employee with return-to-office policy, gamedeveloper.com, July 1, 2024
- ↑ "The final hearing is scheduled for 17th-19th June. It'll be a remote hearing, and open to the public to watch, including reading all the evidence etc.", @paulathion, Twitter, Dec 12, 2023