- Conference
- 2015 Police & Justice Service Group Conference
- Date
- 9 June 2015
- Decision
- Carried
Conference has seen the damaging effect the cuts in the policing budget has had in the workplace over the last few years and with the Conservatives winning a majority at the General Election in May it offers a bleak outlook for all working in policing.
We have seen controls rooms reduced and centralised, Custody Suits moved into central lock ups and many services moved from local stations into city centre locations. Shift patterns for 24/7 staff have mirrored a more demand lead approach to resourcing.
Increasingly we are seeing staff who require reasonable adjustments due to disabilities being removed from these departments due to be unable fulfil a 24/7 shift pattern and placed in daytime roles at a significant detrimental financial cost to them. In the past it was common for forces Occupational Health Departments to make an adjustment for staff with certain disabilities not to work a night shift but continue to work earlies, lates and weekends as the condition didn’t exclude them from working those hours. We now see no room for disabled staff in those areas as an approach of you have to work 24/7 or there is no room for you here.
Are we moving in a direction that due to a reduced workforce and a need to meet demand with fewer staff that forces will directly remove disabled people from certain areas of frontline policing and accommodate them in more of a Monday to Friday administration type roles.
Equality law recognises that bringing about equality for disabled people may mean changing the way in which employment is structured, the removal of physical barriers and/or providing extra support for a disabled worker or job applicant.
This is the duty to make reasonable adjustments.
The duty to make reasonable adjustments aims to make sure that as a disabled person, you have, as far as is reasonable, the same access to everything that is involved in getting and doing a job as a non-disabled person.
When the situation arises, your employer is under a positive and proactive duty to take steps to remove, reduce or prevent the obstacles you face as a disabled worker or job applicant.
Many of the adjustments your employer can make will not be particularly expensive, and they are not required to do more than it is reasonable for them to do. What is reasonable depends, amongst other factors, on the size and nature of your employer’s organisation.
Conference this cannot only be an issue in the West Midlands and we call on the Service Group Executive to:
1)conduct a survey of all police forces to see the impact the cuts are having on disabled members in policing;
2)raise this to APCC and NPCC;
3)work with the Disabled Members Committee to highlight the impact the austerity agenda is having on disabled members in policing.