Poor treatment of disabled people in the workplace
Two recent reports show how real the difficulties remain for disabled employees in the workplace.
Citizens Advice has published research Working with a health condition or disability on the range of barriers facing disabled people at work. It shows that disabled people or those with a health condition are more than twice as likely to fall out of work in any given year compared with those who are not disabled or do not have health problems. The research also found that disabled people are three times less likely to move into employment.
Research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found that employees with poor mental health earn up to 42% less than their colleagues. For every pound earned by a male worker without a mental health condition, a colleague who suffers phobias or panic attacks earns 58 pence.
Our David Sorensen says “Whilst employers have improved significantly in their treatment of disabled employees in the workplace over the last 20 years since the Disability Discrimination Act came into force, there’s still a long way to go. We all value a diverse workforce, it’s better for colleagues, customers and clients. Employers need to bear this in mind when recruiting and in their treatment of staff”.
