Ian Clifford, a senior IT worker who has been diagnosed with stage four leukaemia, is suing IBM for not raising his sick pay over the past 15 years. Whilst some classify his gesture as greedy, the 50-year-old man argues that his £54K annual salary will “wither” over time due to inflation, and adds that he also has to pay tax on the aforementioned amount.
Mr. Clifford claims that IBM hasn’t reviewed his pay since 2013, five years after he signed off work on mental health grounds and one year after he was diagnosed with the terminal illness in 2012.
Since 2012 the man has been on the company’s disability plan, under which a person who is unable to work remains an employee yet has no obligation to work. The payments continue until he reaches the age of 65( which will mean he’ll receive in excess of £1.5 million), but the claimant feels this is quite unlikely due to his illness, and the fact that he been on chemotherapy for many years.
In the meantime, his son is now enrolled in university, the mortgage “isn’t going down because you are sick”, and the inflation is a direct threat, Mr. Clifford told an employment tribunal in Reading.
The case was dismissed as judge Paul Housego decided that Mr. Clifford’s claims for “disability discrimination” agains the tech company aren’t sustainable as “it is not discrimination that the plan is not even more generous.”
The 50-year-old man has now launched an appeal against the court ruling.