A man who has launched more than 100 complaints of disability discrimination has been accused of making a ‘career’ out of employment tribunals.
Christian Mallon, 49, who has been out of full-time employment since 2019, has applied for more than 4,600 jobs in locations from London to Aberdeen, with employers including Honda and the National Crime Agency.
He tells firms that his autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyspraxia mean he struggles to fill in online forms, so he needs to make his application by phone – and he requests interview questions in advance. If they refuse or delay, he launches a disability discrimination claim, arguing that ‘reasonable adjustments’ were not made for him – even if he had little hope of getting the job.
Sometimes Mr Mallon – who boasts of having a PhD in chemical engineering and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) qualification – has 20 claims on the go at once. He appears to have been paid more than £35,000 in out-of-court settlements, despite winning only a single case, which earned him £2,700.
Employers have accused him of being a ‘vexatious’ serial litigant. Firms spend days preparing for and attending hearings, costing them hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Last night Mr Mallon, who shares a detached house with his wife and son in Cannock, Staffordshire, while renting out two flats in Scotland and a house in his native Northern Ireland, told the Daily Mail: ‘I don’t want court cases, I want to work – but the problem is that people don’t make reasonable adjustments. The last job I had paid £50,000 a year, but now I am not being given a chance. What else am I supposed to do?’
One of the 30 short-term jobs he actually secured was a £65,000-a-year role at engineering firm AECOM in Birmingham. He was dismissed after nine months because of ‘unsatisfactory’ performance, but applied for another position there in 2018. This led to his only successful case, out of more than 100.
He claimed he was unable to create his own password for the online application because he struggled to include a ‘special character’, such as an exclamation mark.
The tribunal heard: ‘For him, this was a stressful and onerous requirement.’
AECOM said it was unnecessary to help him apply orally, as his wife could have aided him in creating a password, and pointed out that the firm previously found his work unsatisfactory.
East London Employment Judge Gardiner in 2022 ruled AECOM should have let him apply orally, and awarded him £2,000 for hurt feelings plus £700 interest.
In the rest of the 57 employment judgments available for Mr Mallon, his quests for compensation failed. The tribunals are often over roles ‘where he has no relevant experience’.
He was called out most severely over his claim against Electus Recruitment Solutions, ending in November 2023, and ordered to pay £18,000 towards the firm’s costs.
Employment Judge Halliday told the Southampton tribunal that the ‘purpose of [Mr Mallon] making 4,643 job applications’ was to create opportunities to seek settlements or bring claims, adding: ‘This is effectively now his chosen career.’
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