So the upcoming employment right bill is somewhat positive however….

apple85

so the employment rights bill is being launched today:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-unveils-most-significant-reforms-to-employment-rights

Now it may be just me but I’ve noticed an issue with this (could just be me):

yearly ago (before I got disillusioned about even trying to find suitable work as a disabled person) in almost every job interview as soon as I mentioned I was autistic you could almost visualise the ‘roger rabbit shaped hole in the door’ with the employer figuring out how to end the interview asap

For me there were 3 reasons I’d actually get a job (personal experience with all 3):

1. not actually mentioning I’ve got disabilities/health conditions
2. employers think they can exploit the situation if they see you as vulnerable and not able to speak out (such as paying you less than fully able colleagues, less than minimum wage, pressuring you to work extra hrs - vulnerable ppl like disabled made easy targets for bullies when in school and sadly that situation crossed over into adulthood in my personal experience)
3. You actually find an understanding employer (that sometimes has their own health conditions/disabilities - but could also just be a decent human being) - I’ve noticed this is more likely in professional job sectors (those requiring a qualification such as a specific degree compared to stereotypical working care job requiring no qualifications (eg….cleaner, care home staff, supermarket worker, fast food worker)

A family friend (who was a manager of a big firm) told me about 15 years back (so things may be different now) that you need to legally disclose in the interview stage if you have disabilities so down the line the said disabled employee can’t ‘blindside’ them and sue the business for disability discrimination or unacceptable treatment of employee (understandable as it’s much easier to offend if you don’t have all the info)

For that reason disabled employees are more of a legal minefield (as in theory we are more likely to sue compared to fully abled employees - in reality I’m not sure bcos as soon as you sue an employer it puts a black mark on your record, you can’t get a (good) reference from said past employer…….who wants to employ someone who sued the last place they worked? - I think the reality is disabled employees are less likely to speak out due to fear of repercussions). Also disabled employees cost more in terms of any reasonable adaptations & adjustments needed and also we are often (no fault of our own - health conditions and disabilities are all unpredictable in nature) not the most ‘reliable’ and often need more time off

To sum up it’s totally understandable how businesses (especially smaller ones with less staff but also big corps for different reasons) wouldn’t be so keen to hire a disabled employee

so the employment rights bill is a great things for workers however for many businesses it will make the prospect of hiring a disabled person over a fully abled compatriot even less desirable (unless employers intend to ignore employee legal rights)

For a labour government that have implied that they want significantly more disabled ppl working, this bill makes that aim significantly more difficult to achieve

(Unless there’s a major plan in the works to provide a truckload more help and resources in the job centre to help disabled set up their own business/become legit self employed………but that would require huge financial investment and a relook of the minimum income floor rules (currently a major deterrent in uc when considering self employed work) or even the time to consider minimum basic income if labours no 1 goal is to get more disabled into work over the potential welfare savings)

I believe this bill is the right thing for labour to introduce but they making their goals concerning disabled ppl and sickness welfare bill reduced much harder to achieve (at least if they don’t intend to break a multitude of human rights laws)

Rosie_Scope

Thanks for sharing your thoughts @apple85, you've made some really interesting points.

I had a similar experience to you when applying for jobs. My conditions have varied over the years and for a lot of my early jobs I wasn't mentioning that I was disabled and was very easily finding employment.

As I got older and my health deteriorated I did find that for the applications where I stated that I was disabled and asked for reasonable adjustments or flexible working, I was getting many more rejections. I'm sure there were probably other factors at play, but that was definitely one that wasn't helping. Some sectors are better than others too.

It'll be interesting to see what the impact is of this new bill. It's nice to believe that businesses will become more open to employing disabled people as we move forward, but the right support needs to be in place for both the business and the employees.

egister

Small businesses, for example, are not always able to make reasonable adjustments for the work of people with disabilities. And yes, there are double standards - for example, selection into the army for health reasons is legal. Moreover, at the expense of taxes, special devices are created so that the military can function in various environments (depth, stratosphere...) - I can say these are analogues of reasonable adjustments.

This means that taxes should provide reasonable adjustments for working disabled people.