What an Employer Should Know About Staff With Disabilities in England

In the course of business, you may employ staff with disabilities. Disabilities can be physical or mental and refer to any ailment that impacts your employees’ quality of life. As an employer, you owe legal obligations towards disabled staff. It is, therefore, important you are aware of these to ensure that you carry out your employer’s obligations. Otherwise, you could face an employment tribunal claim.

This article will explain what you, as an employer, need to know about staff with disabilities in England and Wales. It will explain what a disability is, your duty to consider reasonable adjustment, information about disability discrimination, and how you can support your worker with a disability. 

What is a Disability?

If your member of staff has a disability, they will have a physical or mental impairment that affects their ability to carry out normal daily activities.. There are specific conditions and impairments which are automatically classed as a disability which are:

• cancer;
• an HIV infection;
• multiple sclerosis (MS) and
• a visual impairment.

Your staff are not obliged to tell you that they have a disability. However, you are legally required to support them if they choose to.

Reasonable Adjustments

When a member of your staff has a disability, the law requires you to consider any necessary reasonable adjustments to support them in performing their role with you. The reasonable adjustment should mitigate any disadvantage caused by their disability. You should consider reasonable adjustments where:

• an employee has requested one; 
• you have reason to believe a member of staff has a disability; 
• a member of staff struggles to do their job because of a disability; or
• your staff member’s disability affects their workplace attendance. 

An employer should make adjustments if the above criteria apply, but only if the adjustment is a reasonable one for the situation. 

It is best to keep a record of when you make reasonable adjustments, and you should consider reasonable adjustments for all your workers, such as:

• trainees;
• apprentices;
• contract workers; and 
• business partners.

If you fail to do so, you could be taken to an employment tribunal for unlawful discrimination. 

Examples of reasonable adjustments include:

• changing the work pattern;
• changing the place of work, such as allowing a wheelchair user to work on the ground floor;
• extra training running provisions;
• altering access to the workplace, such as by building a ramp;
• providing alternative accessible formats for information; 
• accessible  equipment such as height-adjustable desks for employees with back problems; 
• not insisting on hot-desking if an employee has social anxiety.

Disability Discrimination

Disability is one of nine protected characteristics. Disability discrimination is unlawful when you treat staff differently because they have a disability. The law calls this direct discrimination. It is also unlawful to implement a policy that adversely affects those with a disability even if the outcome was not intended. The law calls this indirect discrimination. 

Separately, you should not treat an employee differently because you suspect they have a disability, even where they do not. Nor should you treat a staff member because they associate with others with disabilities, even if they do not have one themselves. 

Your obligations not to discriminate against those with disabilities include not just full-time, permanent employees, but also: 

• workers;
• contractors;
• self-employed workers; and 
• job applicants.

Examples of disability discrimination in the workplace are:

• paying a disabled worker less than others without good reason;
• not recruiting  a person because they have a disability; and
• choosing a person for redundancy because they have a disability.

Additionally, you must prevent others in your workplace from engaging in discrimination. If you do not, the law will hold you liable.

Supporting Disabled Staff 

In addition to the duty to consider reasonable adjustment when your staff have a disability, there are other ways you can support your staff. You are legally obligated to do all you reasonably can to support staff with disabilities. This includes all areas of their work, for example:

• during recruitment;
• when making workers redundant or dismissing them;
• when workers are sick or absent;
• in your terms and conditions of employment, such as pay and promotion;
• during training;
• work breaks; and
• events related to their work.

Your business should have an equality and diversity policy that will clarify how you try to ensure equal opportunities and the consequences for your staff if they, for example, discriminate. As with any policy, it should be easily accessible and clear to read. 

For ways to further support your staff with disabilities, the government provides the Disability Confident Scheme. This will help you recruit and retain those with a disability. 

Key Takeaways

As an employer, you must not discriminate against employees with disability. You must also prevent discrimination from happening in the workplace. Where a member of staff has a disability, you have an obligation to make reasonable accommodations to support them. If you fail to uphold your obligations, you may be liable for unlawful discrimination. Where you are held liable at an employment tribunal, you may face civil as well as criminal penalties. 

If you need help navigating your employment obligations, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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