Employers must do more to meet their Equality Act obligations to put in place reasonable adjustments for disabled workers.
This is from the May 2018 report (pdf) from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) which looks at the disability pay gap and the difference between the average hourly pay of disabled and non-disabled people.
This report shows that disabled people face double discrimination. It finds that:
- Disabled workers are more likely than non-disabled workers to be employed in a lower paid occupation
- A look at the past four years does show some improvement, with an increase of 595,786 EA disabled people aged 16-64 being employed
- Disabled women face the largest pay gap, which is even larger than the gender pay gap faced by non-disabled women
- The UK has a persistent disability employment gap which is currently over 30 percentage points
The TUC recommends:
- The government must publish statistical information on the scale of the disability pay gap to increase awareness of the gap. This information should be for full-time and part-time workers, broken down by gender, region and occupational groups
- The government must ensure Access to Work is funded appropriately so all eligible people can access their full entitlement. In addition, they must remove the cap on how much can be claimed which currently prevents many deaf people and those with high-level needs from accessing appropriate support
- Employers must do more to meet their Equality Act obligations to put in place reasonable adjustments for disabled workers. This can involve removing physical barriers to employment and/or providing extra support for a disabled worker
- Employers should record time off because of a disability separately from non disability sick leave. This would recognise the fact that some disabled people may have different and higher forms of sickness absence.
