Help employers with disability duty, says TUC

The TUC has issued a guide to help unions challenge disability discrimination and negotiate workplace policies.

Disability and work — a trade union guide to the law and good practice explains how unions can work with employers to make the new Disability Equality Duty a reality. Under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, public sector organisations will from December have a positive duty to promote disability equality and eliminate discrimination.

The guide gives an update on disability discrimination law and codes of practice. And it provides guidance on workplace issues including recruitment, performance-related pay, promotion and training, health and safety, sickness and redundancy.

It also offers advice on setting up a scheme to monitor compliance with the new duty. Besides detailing the preparation, planning and consultation required, it points out that disabled workers are often reluctant to discuss their disability — meaning that it is essential to convince them that the purpose of collecting the monitoring data is to improve disabled people’s position in the organisation.

The guide can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/extras/disabilityandwork.pdf