Civil servant with germaphobia sues Scottish Government over work from home policy
A civil servant with a phobia of germs is suing a Scottish Government agency over its refusal to allow him to work from home.
John-Paul Pryce, worked as an administrative case officer in the office of the Debt Arrangement Scheme department.
Like most other employees, he was allowed to work from during the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, in 2022 he was asked to return to the office, prompting Mr Pryce to submit a flexible working request which was ultimately rejected by his employer.
Mr Pryce is now pursuing a claim of disability discrimination and a failure to to make reasonable adjustments as a result.
Employment tribunal documents detail how Mr Price had worked for the same employer for 13 years prior to the pandemic, with a GP noting that during this period he had “managed working on site and engaged in social activity with no health issues.”
Yet following a serious bout of Covid in March 2020 – during which he thought he was going to die – Mr Pryce became “very focused on the dangers of the virus”.
Since then he stopped socialising with others, playing table tennis with friends and attending concerts or going on holidays.
In a disability impact statement submitted to the tribunal, Mr Pryce stated that he suffered from severe anxiety, adding that he can experience “panic attacks” in indoor settings.
The document read: “On a few occasions I have had to go into indoor spaces, I can only spend a few minutes before I start sweating, get angry about anyone remotely coming close to me and feel nauseous and feel the need to leave as soon as possible.
“I can’t stand being near others and see them as coughing, sneezing, germ and virus spreaders.”
The tribunal also heard the civil servant had been brought up to be “very focused on cleanliness” and as a child was “frightened of germs, viruses and illnesses”.
While making his case with his employer to remain working from home, Mr Pryce told his HR department that he was “happier overall” and “more comfortable, productive and safe” staying away from the office.
In an email sent in May 2022, he wrote: “I have no distractions of background noise, do not need to try and feign interest in what other people did with their weekend or watched on TV the previous night etc.
“There is no work task which I cannot do far better without the distractions of a toxic, open-plan work environment.
“It is unfair to assume that everyone wants or needs other people around them.”
Mr Pryce’s GP, who noted he had not attended the practice in person since September 2018, said a provisional diagnosis of social anxiety and mysophobia – sometimes known as germaphobia – had been made.
The GP wrote: “I can say John does not suffer from any significant severe mental illness.
“He has social anxiety and agoraphobia and he feels safe working from home. His symptoms and beliefs have worsened since the outbreak of the pandemic.”
Employment Judge James Hendry ruled in the claimant’s favour in this first stage of the tribunal – and said that the claimant could be classed as disabled under equality laws.
In his ruling following the preliminary hearing, Judge Hendry wrote: “The claimant lives a very isolated life.
His wife’s evidence, which I accept, is that this has become progressively worse over the last two years.
He seldom ventures from the house. He would not let a colleague into his house when they delivered a laptop to him insisting that the exchange took place in the open air.”
Advising Mr Pryce to contact a counselling service, Judge Hendry added: “Whatever the label put on such behaviour, which is in no way voluntary, the phobia he has which drives his behaviour has an adverse effect.”