There is ongoing discrimination against disabled people at work, UNISON’s disabled conference in Manchester heard this afternoon.
“Capability is used as a weapon against us” said Tony Maric, “we’re seen as a problem that’s got to be dealt with”. But he worried that the union didn’t have enough evidence to prove this claim.
Conference agreed to gather information on how employees are dismissed on the grounds of capability.
Sheila Smart reported that disability related absence was increasingly being used as a selection criteria for redundancy. She urged delegates to challenge employers where they saw this happening.
And Elizabeth Cameron argued for separate policies on disability leave and regular sickness absence as without this “management policies often discriminate against disabled workers”.
The Bradford factor (where short and frequent absences are considered more disruptive than longer absences), notorious for its discrimination against disabled people, was roundly condemned and it was agreed to research an alternative.
