Reasonable adjustments for Disabled Members in Community

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Conference
2022 Community Conference and Seminar
Date
26 November 2021
Decision
Carried

Conference welcomes the initiatives taken to date by the Community Service Group to advance the rights of disabled members in the workplace.

Conference notes that the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the structural inequality disabled people face but has also created the opportunity to confront discrimination and inequality in our workplaces in a way that allows the talent and potential of disabled workers to flourish.

Prior to Covid-19 our disabled members were constantly told by employers that working from home was not a reasonable adjustment, was not financially viable or practical, or was simply “not policy”. A survey of 5,000 UNISON disabled workers in June 2020 found:

1. 50% of UNISON disabled members were working from home, compared to 5% before the pandemic;

2. 73% said they were more productive or as productive compared to being in the workplace;

3. Reasons for being more productive included being able to manage pain better, ability to take short breaks or work a more flexible day, less impact of commute on energy limiting conditions and easier access to a toilet;

4. Many members said they hadn’t needed to call in sick as much because they could manage their impairment better at home.

Nonetheless, it should not be over-looked that some disabled members reported facing significant problems working from home, including the effect of caring responsibilities.

Almost 20% of respondents said that the impact on their mental health and feelings of isolation were an issue. There have also been reports of increased bullying of disabled members in the new virtual world where there are often no witnesses.

Conference believes that COVID-19 has proved that home working is a viable reasonable adjustment for disabled members who want it. There must be no going back to ‘normal’ with workers having to fight to get home working agreed as a reasonable adjustment.

However, Conference is also aware that some unscrupulous employers may try to use home working as a way of cutting costs and of getting away with not providing accessible workplaces. Disabled members working in community believe that home working should be a choice for disabled workers who want it but there must also be enforcement action against employers who try to use home working as a way of getting off the hook for providing reasonable adjustments in the workplace.

Reasonable adjustments must also be provided for disabled home workers just as they would be in the workplace, including mental health related adjustments.

However, UNISON’s home working survey found that 53% of disabled members received no reasonable adjustments to support them to work from home.

Only 5% had support from the government’s flagship Access to Work scheme which contributes to the cost of adjustments. UNISON successfully lobbied government to extend Access to Work to homeworking as a result of our survey but the scheme is still used by far too few disabled workers and remains “government’s best kept secret”. In particular, many employers and workers are unaware of the mental health support the scheme offers, which includes ideas for workplace adjustments and up to nine months tailored work-focused mental health support.

UNISON’s 2019 report ‘Let’s be Reasonable’, based on a survey of 3,000 disabled workers, found that over two thirds of those who requested reasonable adjustments were turned down or faced employers who just never responded to them. Even where reasonable adjustments were agreed, 23% waited a year or more for them to be put in place.

As a result, many of our disabled members end up being hounded out of their jobs on capability grounds, often due to sickness absence that could have been avoided with the right adjustments.

Conference is concerned at this situation especially when our members in Community work for organisations which provide services and support to disabled citizens.

It is now more important than ever to support the recruitment and retention of disabled people within our service group as we try to undo the damage the pandemic has done to our economy. Community employer Leonard Cheshire recently found that a quarter of disabled people worked reduced hours and a quarter were placed on furlough during the COVID crisis, indicating the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on disabled people. A Citizens’ Advice survey found one in four disabled workers were facing redundancy, a warning that disabled people are likely to be badly hit by any post-pandemic recession.

Conference believes that now is the time to fight for a comprehensive post-pandemic settlement for disabled workers in Community.

Conference calls upon the Community Service Group Executive to work with the National Executive Council and the National Disabled Members Committee to:

a. Campaign for a stronger right to home working as a reasonable adjustment for disabled workers who want it;

b. Continue to publicise UNISON’s Reasonable Adjustments bargaining guide, which includes a model policy and Accessibility Passport that can be used to negotiate locally, and our Disability Leave bargaining guide;

c. Publicise UNISON’s homeworking bargaining guide and the two Stewards Guides to representing disabled and Deaf members;

d. Develop Community-specific recruitment materials targeted at disabled workers highlighting UNISON’s achievements