Disability

Just under a quarter of the working population are disabled, and protection against disability discrimination has been in place for almost 30 years, yet we still see disabled employees facing challenges at work and employers struggling to meet their legal obligations and employee expectations.

We see first-hand the challenges that employers face with some requests for adjustments, where they want to do the right thing but there is a lack of understanding of what that is, or how far they are expected to go. Each case is unique which means it’s difficult to provide general guidance. While large employers will often have the resources to accommodate changes, sometimes it is their size and desire to be consistent with everyone which prevents them from having the flexibility to depart from their standard policy or process. “That’s not how it’s done” is still something we hear.

On this disability hub page we share our insights on the legal issues with reasonable adjustments and what this looks like in practice. Getting this wrong is costly; disability discrimination claims normally have the highest average employment tribunal awards. Training managers on the steps they need to take to implement reasonable adjustments is money well spent. Progressive employers should be considering a range of options to support their disabled staff and initiatives like workplace passports are helping to normalise the approach in the workplace.

Recent experience

• Advising a financial services client on reasonable adjustments in a disciplinary situation involving an adjusted outcome to take account of the employee’s disability.
• Drafting a reasonable adjustments policy for an international client.
• Training for managers in a technology client on the law and practical application of reasonable adjustments.