Disability Discrimination Act
A recent decision by the Employment Appeal Tribunal has further increased the duties on employers when making adjustments for disabled employees.
But just how far do these duties go? Brendan Wincott, mhl’s Employment Law Compliance Officer tells us more about the recent case development in this fast changing area of employment law.
Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (as amended), an employer has an obligation to make reasonable adjustments to an employee’s job role, workplace, or any other aspect of their working environment where they are placed at a disadvantage because of their disability.
“Under the existing legislation, the types of adjustments that an employer should make will depend largely on the nature of the disability, the disadvantage that this causes to the individual, along with consideration of what adjustments are available and whether these are considered reasonable or not.” Examples are given in the legislation of the types of adjustments which an employer can make. These include adjustments to the employee’s workplace, allocating alternative duties, altering hours of work, allowing time off for treatment, providing supervision, plus many more.
However in a recent case* the EAT concerned themselves with one particular aspect of these examples, namely, transferring the employee to fill an existing vacancy. Brendan explained “the EAT expressed their opinion that a duty to transfer an employee to an alternative role is not limited to considering only vacant positions, and rather, they held the duty can, in some instances, require the employer to swap the employee’s role with another employee who is occupying a suitable role, even if this is not vacant.”
Naturally, this imposes a much greater obligation onto employers and increases the parameters for what might be considered to be a reasonable adjustment.
It is extremely costly when employers fall foul of their duties under the disability legislation. Not only is there no minimum length of service required to make a claim, if the Employment Tribunal find in favour of the employee, the awards are uncapped and can run to tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds.
mhl has a team of specialist and experienced advisers who are able to tell you more about these latest developments. If you are an existing client, please call one of the team today on 08453 100 999 quoting your PCN number. If you are not already a client, but are interested in learning more about the services mhl provide, please call Katy Vaughan today on 08453 100 600 for your free no obligation quote.
*Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police v Jelic (UKEAT/0491/09/CEA),
This News Release is intended to provide a general overview and discussion of the subject matter. It is not however, intended to give advice or to act as a substitute to taking legal advice from our Support Line in any specific situation. mhl accepts no liability or responsibility for the information contained within this news release. If you would like specific advice about this subject matter, please contact one of the Employment Law Team today on 08453 100 999.
