Cicero Policy Briefer

Issue 6, November 2006

Disability Discrimination: The need for business to lead on reform

By Stephanie Fraser

The Welfare Reform Bill, introduced on 4 July 2006, is now in its Commons Committee Stage. Consequently, the issues of employer prejudice in the employment and workplace support of people with disabilities are being repeatedly flagged up in the ongoing discussions.

“Without sustained effort to attract and accommodate people with disabilities, the issue slips quickly into being a marginal concern”

While the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 made it illegal to differentiate between employers on grounds of disability (aiming to guarantee ‘a fair right to employment’, ‘a fair right to access to goods, facilities and services’ and ‘a right to have reasonable adjustments made to premises’), more than a decade on prevailing workplace attitudes still disadvantage the disabled.

In respect of this, the Government itself is far from an exemplar employer. Despite assurances from the Junior Trade and Industry Minister, Jim Fitzpatrick MP, that the DTI is on target to meet the deadline that public bodies have due with regard to promoting disability in all their functions, and to produce a disability equality scheme by 4 December 2006, at present only 6.8 per cent of DTI employers are disabled compared to 19 per cent of the working age population. Further, the engagement of disabled people at the Department for Work and Pensions has actually fallen by three quarters as a percentage of all intake since their withdrawal of the Access to Work Scheme – a deplorable lapse which shows that without sustained effort to attract and accommodate people with disabilities, the issue slips quickly into being a marginal concern. The lack of integration of disability issues into standard recruitment practices is a problem which needs addressing directly.

The concerns of the Welfare Reform Bill Committee are that this ongoing discrimination is borne out of a lack of understanding among employers about how to appropriately accommodate disabled employees’ potential spectrum of needs; an ignorance both harmful and unnecessary. In part this stems from disability discrimination itself being broader and less clearly defined than other forms, such as age discrimination. However, there is a need to dispel the trepidation and encourage employers to engage actively with disability issues, rather than merely by default.

Reassurance, then, must be in order. Official reports have continually highlighted the fact that companies themselves benefit from making adjustments (whether to the workplace or to standard working practices) and retaining employees with disabilities. This evidence needs to be reiterated and made easily available to all employers. With the UK workforce continuing to age steadily, the percentage of disabled people seeking work will also continue to rise.

The business community and public services will therefore need to make a strong and fully involved commitment to eradicate disability discrimination, in the same way as they have worked on the issues of gender and racial workplace inequality. The Government should, of course, be a model employer; nevertheless, it will be to the benefit of businesses themselves to embrace reform wholeheartedly and at the earliest possible opportunity.

Stephanie Fraser can be contacted on +44 (0)20 7665 9531 or click here to email.

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