UK Employment Law On Disability Discrimination: Summary And Critique

The Critical Aspects of Legal Regulation

The purpose of the following essay is to determine the various facts related to the employment relationships in the United Kingdom. The relationship between the employees and the employers has deteriorated because of the tortures they have faced while working within the organization. The British Government is indeed very keen about mitigating the issues that are there within the organizations regarding the disabled discrimination. The organizations would be highly motivated towards providing the employees with the best opportunities for the progress in their careers (Gov.uk 2018). It is the responsibility of both the private and government organizations to protect the rights of the disabled persons. It is also their responsibility to punish the offenders if they violate these legislations and harass the disabled people at the workplaces. The UK employment law on the rights of the disabled people will be summarized and reviewed critically in order to present them with the opportunity to provide the best facilities and opportunities. This will surely benefit them with the best ways indeed. The Equality Law 2010 presents the disabled employees with the proper safeguard.

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The Equality Act 2010 in the United Kingdom has been implemented for the best interest of the disabled workers. The United Nations has also approved of this law for preserving the rights of the people. The administration has been empowered to take strict actions against the people who violate all these laws (Gov.uk 2018). This act has proactively made it completely illegal and unlawful harass the disabled people at the workplaces. In this regard, the term ‘employee’ will have to be understood. The people who are under the employment contracts are generally considered as the employees of any organization (Lockwood, Henderson and Thornicroft 2012). Some of the issues that this law controls are the victimization, harassment at the workplace and the discriminated by the people within the organization as well (Cunningham and James 2001). There are many kinds of discriminations that could be made indeed. These are generally the physical or mental impairment or any other issues like that. This impairment of the employees will not be caused because of certain illnesses. These impairments generally leave the negative mark on the minds of the employees (Gov.uk 2018). 

The long term harassments on the employees are considered to be important parameters for measuring the extent of harm done to the employees. If the harassments take place more than a year on a disabled employee, this will really do bad things to the employees. The employees must produce the proof of his disability to the employers so they can be treated differently as well (Gov.uk 2018). The different types of impairments affect the employees in different ways indeed. Thus the organizations will need to assess the extent of mental or physical disability or disorders they suffer (Cunningham and James 2001). In the words of Marumoagae (2012) the organizations still does not take the responsibility of assuring the security of the employees, this will really be fatal for them. Experts like Marumoagae (2012) have opined that the difficult conditions will be developed in terms of the employees. It can also be said the disability of the employers will also affect their working capacities as well (Marumoagae 2012). The employers will have to make the proper adjustments in this scenario as well. According to Dickens (2005), the employers can be taken to the employment tribunal and this will sincerely take care of the entire business indeed (Dickens 2005).

Direct and Indirect Disability Discrimination

The discrimination on the disabled people can be divided into two sections. One is the direct discrimination and the other is the indirect discrimination (Gov.uk 2018). As per Dickens (2005) the direct discrimination against the employees can take place by the activities like the nit recruiting someone within the organization, dismissing or terminating them, stopping their promotion or training, offering them lower facilities, benefits and terms and conditions compared to other people. The disabled people can be employed on the contractual basis as well. This will really hamper the organization’s effectiveness to work smoothly as well (Dickens 2005).

The second kind of disabled discrimination is the indirect discrimination. This kind of workplace discrimination is generally lesser in consequence than the first one. When an employee accuses the employers that he has been discriminated indirectly, he or she will have to show the proper evidence regarding that (Barak 2016). Some of the areas that can be highlighted about this regard are that of the recruitment and selection of the employees, not including that particular employee in important policies or frameworks of the organization (Dickens 2005). The benefits of the contracts can also be hampered due to the mental or physical impairment of the employees (Flint and Snook 2014). Another important scenario in this context of the workplace discrimination is the harassment on the workers. This activity of harassment on the workers is considered to be the ‘unwanted conduct’ within the organization. The critics like Carle (2012) has argued that in many cases or situations that the employees are being harassed by the colleagues or pushing them aside from the normal constraints of the business people. The experts have argued that this creates a sense of grudge or grievance in the minds of the disabled workers effectively (Dickens 2005). If an employee is called by some irritating nicknames or bullied by their colleagues this will hurt the self-respect of that employee. The disabled person will feel that he is living in a hostile environment and the people around him in the organization do not pay them the proper respect (Carle 2012). It has also been included in the law that strict actions could be taken against the people who are making discriminations and hurting the self-respect of those disabled employees. As per the critics, the working environment in the organizations can get worse with the advent of these types of things (Dickens 2012). It will be better for the employees to keep away these things as this will ruin the reputation of the organization as well. As per the experts, the most important thing that can be done in this scenario is the fact that the organizational managers should look at the needs of the individual employees and take the proper actions regarding the disability issues (Roulstone and Williams 2014).

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The harassment of the employees can be done in verbal, physical or written ways. In this context, some issues will have to be identified and the culprits will have to be found by tallying with the complaints and accusations of the disabled employees. If the disabled employees are asked certain inappropriate questions that they should not have been asked falls in the category of abuse and harassment (Dickens 2012). This leads to the mental impairment of the disabled people as well. The employees should launch the complaints whenever they are victimized in such ways (Woodhams and Corby 2007). This will help the organization to take some strict actions. They have to prove that they are at the receiving end of the misbehavior. It is not at all compulsory that the employees who raise this topic of concern must have the same level of the disability issues. It has also been seen that some of the employees are even tortured physically when they get out of their office (Fevre et al. 2016). If this is committed by one of his colleagues the people present there can be taken as the witnesses indeed. The experts like Fevre et al. (2016) have criticized that the disability issues get highlighted when the person is absent from work because of his illness, have problems with their movements or even have problems regarding reading, writing, talking, listening to some relevant audios or understanding them.

Implementation of the Law

It has been said that the law will have to be implemented properly within the jurisdiction of the organizations. If the disabled people are not treated too seriously or get the favor compared to the people without any problems, this might create an issue about their safeguarding (Foster 2007). The reasonable adjustments would have to be made in the organizations as well in terms of the implementation of the legal regulations. The critics have argued on this ground that the law suggests that the potential job candidates cannot be discriminated just because of their disability issues. According to the critical experts like Foster (2017) the following areas in which the job candidates will have to be treated in an equal way are the filling up of application forms, arranging for the interviews, competing in the aptitude tests where the proficiency of the employees is measured, giving job offers and others. It is very evident that the disabled people will not be able to maintain the strict disciplines within the organization. They should be allowed to appear in their own ways (Foster 2007). No person should tease him or irritate him because of that only. According to Foster and Scott (2015) the various terms of the employment like the payment issues, leaves, benefits and increments should be at the same level of the other employees. The employees with disability should not face any discrimination regarding their promotion, transfer to other places and the future opportunities in the job as well. It must be mentioned within the context that they should not be transferred to any remote place because they will have severe discomfort issues there (Foster and Scott 2015). 

Effectiveness of the Equality Act, 2010

This act will indeed be very effective as well. The effectiveness of this legal regulation will have to be measured properly as well. It can be done only by monitoring the effects of applying this act. If the number of such acts decreases, this will be a good sign for the organization (Foster and Scott 2015). The critics like Jones and Wass (2013) have said that the employers should always be sure about the ways of how the disabled person will be able to take part in the essential tasks that could be assigned to him. The employers must be able to make some reasonable adjustments when they go on to employ the disabled people. It is a also the part of the corporate social responsibility of the organizations to employ the disabled people. They have to make their policies somewhat simpler for the benefits of these disabled people. It is very clear by the act that the disabled people cannot fall victims of redundancy only because of redundancy (Jones and Wass 2013). The rules and policies for redundancy should always be equal for all the people indeed. Sometimes such cases occur that the employees are dismissed just because they are not being able to turn up at the offices. If it is found that the real reason behind this is disability of the person, proper actions could be taken on the authority as well (Jones and Wass 2013). The experts believe that the case might be justified by the organizations as well. As the critics say the disabled employees might be able to raise the concern that the adapted equipment to cope up with their disability was not present in the organizations. The argument of the critics lies on the fact why the employees always have the advantage over the employers in this context. It has also argued by some that the employers have not been able to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ in the organization. This will surely hamper the positive workflow indeed (Williams et al. 2008). The companies are entitled to behave with their employees in a very careful way. If the companies do not abide by these issues, this will surely be harmful for their future. High levels of monetary penalties can be imposed as well. The disabled persons will act as the claimants for accusing the employers of behaving with them less favorably.

Conclusion

The conclusion to this paper can be drawn by saying that the disabled people will have to be given the utmost priority as per the legal regulations. It is a matter of fact that the organizations should always look after the disabled people. It is because the Government has always put the stress on recruiting the people with disabilities in the organizations to some extent as well. The disabled people will have to be treated equally indeed. Otherwise the people will grow a grievance against the people who have not treated them in equal manner. The reasonable adjustments are very important in this scenario as well. The organizations must see to the fact that the disabled people are provided with all sorts of facilities. This should ensure the parity indeed. This would work as the motivation to work better.

References

Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.

Carle, S., 2012. Employment discrimination.

Cunningham, I. and James, P., 2001. Managing diversity and disability legislation: catalysts for eradicating discrimination in the workplace?. In Equality, diversity and disadvantage in employment (pp. 103-117). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Dickens, L. ed., 2012. Making employment rights effective: Issues of enforcement and compliance. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Dickens, L., 2005. Walking the talk? Equality and diversity in employment’. Managing human resources: Personnel management in transition, 4.

Fevre, R.W., Foster, D.J., Jones, M. and Wass, V.J., 2016. Closing disability gaps at work: deficits in evidence and variations in experience.

Flint, S.W. and Snook, J., 2014. Obesity and discrimination: The next ‘big issue’?. International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, 14(3), pp.183-193.

Foster, D. and Scott, P., 2015. Nobody’s responsibility: the precarious position of disabled employees in the UK workplace. Industrial Relations Journal, 46(4), pp.328-343.

Foster, D., 2007. Legal obligation or personal lottery? Employee experiences of disability and the negotiation of adjustments in the public sector workplace. Work,

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Gov.uk (2018). Disability rights. [online] GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/rights-disabled-person/employment [Accessed 13 Aug. 2018].

Jones, M. and Wass, V., 2013. Understanding changing disability-related employment gaps in Britain 1998–2011. Work, employment and society, 27(6), pp.982-1003.

Lockwood, G., Henderson, C. and Thornicroft, G., 2012. The Equality Act 2010 and mental health. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 200(3), pp.182-183.

Marumoagae, M.C., 2012. Disability discrimination and the right of disabled persons to access the labour market. Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal/Potchefstroomse Elektroniese Regsblad, 15(1).

Roulstone, A. and Williams, J., 2014. Being disabled, being a manager:‘glass partitions’ and conditional identities in the contemporary workplace. Disability & Society, 29(1), pp.16-29.

Woodhams, C. and Corby, S., 2007. Then and now: disability legislation and employers’ practices in the UK. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 45(3), pp.556-580.