Talent show contestant looses disabilty discrimination appeal

Emma Czikai has lost her appeal against the employment tribunal decision that she did not suffer disability discrimination when she was knocked out of the Britain’s Got Talent competition by judges Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden following her audition in 2009.

Ms Czikai said she was “humiliated and degraded” by the judges’ comments about her performance.

Ms Czikai suffers from fibromyalgia and she claimed that the TV show failed to make reasonable adjustments for her in accordance with the Disability Discrimination Act 1996 (now replaced by the Equality Act 2010). She also claimed that the broadcasting of the audition amounted to harassment.

Ms Czikai was claiming a total of £2.5 million, made up of £300,000 for injury to feelings, £1 million in compensation and £1.25 million for loss of earnings.

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in 2010, the employment tribunal found that the audition did not qualify as a job interview and the judges/Freemantle Media were not prospective employers. It also said that Mrs Czikai had not disclosed her disability to Britain’s Got Talent’s producers and therefore they could not be found to have failed to make reasonable adjustments.

Ms Czikai’s appeal has now also been dismissed by the EAT.

A spokeswoman for Britain’s Got Talent’s producers Talkback Thames told The Sun: “We welcome the decision.

“We have always denied that we treated her unfairly or in a discriminatory way.”