Supporting Disabled Members – A Guide for Usdaw Reps

Date: 17 April 2008

Supporting Disabled Members – A Guide for Usdaw Reps

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 gives thousands of Usdaw members important employment rights. Members and reps should be aware of these rights and the situations where the Act can help.

The right

• Members with a disability have a right not to be treated less favourably.
• Members have a right to have reasonable adjustments made to their job or work to take account of their disability.

What do we mean by disability?

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) gives disabled people a number of important rights and protection at work. To be entitled to this protection, you have to meet the definition of disability as outlined by the Act.

Some examples of where people have been considered disabled are:

• Hearing or sight impairment, severe disfigurement.
• Significant mobility difficulty.
• Rheumatoid arthritis or other serious progressive illnesses.
• Health conditions including high or low blood pressure, epilepsy, strokes, ulcers, asthma, diabetes.
• Accidental injuries, post operative recovery periods.
• Mental health issues, learning difficulties, significant dyslexia, postnatal depression.

If you are diagnosed with MS, cancer or HIV you are automatically covered by the DDA and protected from discrimination from the point of diagnosis.

When deciding if you or a member are covered by the DDA, ask five questions:

• Do I have a physical or mental impairment?
• Is it more than a trivial condition?
• Has it/will it last a year or more?
• What would happen if I stopped taking medication?
• Does it affect my everyday life? For instance:
• Mobility
• Manual dexterity
• Lifting everyday things
• Co-ordination
• Speech
• Memory
• Hearing
• Concentration
• Eyesight
• Learning/understanding

If the answers are yes, then you will be covered by the Act.

When might the DDA help?

Reps can use the DDA to support disabled members in the following situations at work:

• Bullying and harassment.
• Attendance management and sick leave.
• Performance, appraisal and discipline for performance.
• Capability and ill health dismissals.
• Redundancy selection criteria.
• Promotion and access to training.
• Changes to the workplace, the shift, the job content.
• Terms and conditions and access to benefits and pensions.

When work-related decisions are being made, reps should ask the following questions:

• Is the action being taken directly because of the member's disability?
• Is the action being taken because of the effect the member's disability has on performance, attendance, flexibility, etc?
• What reasonable adjustments can be made in the circumstances:
• To enable the member to stay in work.
• To enable the member to perform well in work.
• To adapt policies and procedures to take account of the member's condition.

Reasonable adjustments - what can be done

Employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to take account of the member's disability in a wide range of situations. The best person to ask about what adjustments will be most helpful is the disabled person. You might want to suggest that employers contact an outside agency for expert advice such as the RNID but always make sure the disabled person agrees to this and is involved in the process.

Examples of reasonable adjustments include:

• Adjustments to the building.
• Changing elements of the job.
• Using modified tools and equipment.
• Training, mentoring and support.
• Transfer to a new role.
• Changing, reducing or working flexible hours.
• Adapting communication systems to make manuals and instructions accessible.
• Adjustments to sickness absence formulae - for example, counting disability related absence separately and making allowance for it.
• Adjustments to redundancy selection criteria.
• Using a reader or interpreter.

Meetings in general

You may represent a member at a Disciplinary or Grievance Hearing about any issue - not just DDA complaints. Make sure that the member can fully participate in the meeting and there are no disability related issues which put them at a disadvantage. Ask for adjustments as required - hearing loops, large print documents, rest breaks or dictaphones. Similarly, your member may need this kind of support to attend management briefing meetings or training.

Sickness absence

Attendance management formulae should be adjusted to discount disability related absence.

Disability related sickness absence should be discounted for the purpose of redundancy selection criteria, performance appraisal, disciplinary purposes and promotion criteria.

There should be a planned return to work programme after a long period of ill health absence with reasonable adjustments. Things like returning initially on shorter hours (sometimes called a phased return) might be helpful.

Ill health dismissals

A dismissal on the grounds of ill health which relates to a disability will be discriminatory unless the company has properly explored and exhausted all possible reasonable adjustments - including alternative work.

If dismissal on ill health grounds cannot be avoided, then ill health early retirement should be carefully explored.

Redundancy selection

Redundancy selection criteria which are based on sickness absence, flexibility and performance appraisals may put disabled members at a disadvantage. Criteria should be questioned and reasonable adjustments made if a member scores badly because of disability related factors.

Changes to the systems of work

Changes to shift patterns, locations and working systems may impact adversely on members with disabilities and this should be taken into account and adjustments made.

Health and safety

For some people with certain disabilities there may be special health and safety issues to consider. For example, how will a worker who has severe mobility difficulties be protected if there is a fire alarm? There may also be some tasks that some workers can't do because of their disability, but this will depend on each individual's circumstances.

A worker who has epilepsy that is well controlled may be able to work with dangerous machinery but someone who has a recent history of fits/blackouts may not.

Health and safety is sometimes misused as an excuse to deny jobs to workers with disabilities. It is important that health and safety issues connected to a member's disability are properly risk assessed and that the risk assessment is discussed with the member and their Health and Safety Rep.

Making a complaint to Tribunal

It is always our aim to resolve members' grievances under the company procedures. But if that is not successful a member may make a complaint to an Employment Tribunal if they have suffered discrimination or victimisation.

A member who wishes to make a Tribunal complaint under the DDA must also lodge a grievance under the company procedures specifically about the discrimination.

Health and safety is sometimes misused as an excuse to deny jobs to workers with disabilities. It is important that health and safety issues connected to a member's disability are properly risk assessed and that the risk assessment is discussed with the member and their Health and Safety Rep.

Making a complaint to Tribunal

It is always our aim to resolve members' grievances under the company procedures. But if that is not successful a member may make a complaint to an Employment Tribunal if they have suffered discrimination or victimisation.

A member who wishes to make a Tribunal complaint under the DDA must also lodge a grievance under the company procedures specifically about the discrimination.

The Tribunal has strict time limits for making a claim - three months less one day from the date of the incident.

It is the responsibility of the member to ensure that their claim form is lodged in time, but where a Tribunal claim is being considered, it is advisable to contact your Area Organiser for advice.

Continuing in work

Two important things to remember when representing members that have become disabled are:

1. Has the employer considered disability leave, before retirement on medical grounds, to allow members of staff who have become disabled time to adjust to their disability?

2. Where members are on long-term sick leave, can their job or work/hours of work be adjusted to enable them to come back to work as opposed to being dismissed on the grounds of ill health?

Access to work

There are one million disabled people wanting to work and over 700,000 unfilled jobs in the UK. Disabled people are five times more likely to be unemployed than non-disabled people, whatever their qualifications and abilities.

In an attempt to address this, the Government has introduced a voluntary scheme called 'New Deal for disabled people'. It is a programme designed to support and prepare disabled people for paid work. There are also in-work benefits for disabled people who are in work.

1. Disability Living Allowance can continue to be paid to disabled people in work. It is a non-means tested, non-taxable benefit.

2. Disabled people on low incomes may also qualify for Working Tax Credit if they work over 16 hours. If a disabled person has children they may also qualify for Child Tax Credit.

3. Disability Employment Advisors based in JobCentre Plus offices can offer a wide range of support, advice and information including 'Access to Work' - a scheme which provides advice and practical and financial support to disabled people and their employers.

Supporting Disabled Members - A Guide for Usdaw Reps was correct at date of publication April 2008.

Download File:
Supporting Disabled Members – A Guide for Usdaw Reps [ pdf ]

If you do not have the software to download this attachment you can download it here.
This is a large document - which may take some time to display.
If you have problems viewing it, you can 'download' this file by 'right-clicking' the link, and saving the document to your desktop. Then, open the saved document in the normal manner.
[ Get a player/reader for this file here ]

 Printer Friendly Page

 Email to a Friend

© 2003 (USDAW) Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers
This page: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/equality/resource_library/1210678763_9694.html
Last Modified: Tuesday, 13-May-2008 23:52:08 EST