Before being elected as the MP for Ealing Southall, I was the national officer for disability equality at the country’s biggest trade union, UNISON.
I was also a shop steward for many years, representing people with problems at work. Astoundingly, about two-thirds of my cases involved disabled workers.
By law, employers are supposed to make changes to help disabled people stay in their jobs, known as ‘reasonable adjustments’. These can include a special keyboard to reduce arthritis
pain, speech-to-text software to help workers with dyslexia, or a later start time so medication can take effect.
But in my experience employers just weren’t complying with the law. In fact UNISON research found that nearly three-quarters of disabled workers are denied these changes. Even when adjustments are approved, around a quarter of disabled workers wait over a year for them to be put in place.
The most common story I heard from disabled workers was that they were simply ignored. Disabled workers would request help and hear nothing. For many that meant they had to carry on in pain, without the right equipment, often set up to fail. Soon managers would start criticising their performance. Eventually, they would end up off sick and pushed out the door. All because their employer refused to make small, simple changes.
Employers can get away with this because, unlike flexible working requests, there’s no legal deadline to respond to a request for reasonable adjustments. That gap in the law is pushing disabled people out of good jobs and onto benefits.
That’s why last month, I introduced a 10 Minute Rule Bill to the House of Commons that will give disabled workers more rights at work and ensure they can stay in jobs they enjoy, rather than end up stuck on welfare.
My bill would set a clear deadline for employers to respond to disabled workers’ requests for reasonable adjustments.
There are over 5 million disabled people in work, but that’s still less than 52% of disabled people, compared to 80% of non-disabled people who are in work. That 29-point gap is known as the disability employment gap and governments have tried and failed to close it for years.
A recent study by the Learning and Work Institute found 2 in 10 disabled people on benefits want to work, but more than half receive no support to do so. This Labour government is offering disabled people a real chance at equality in work. Our Employment Rights Bill willgive everyone the right to request flexible working, which will especially help disabled workers who want to work part time or have more breaks to manage their pain.
Liz Kendall’s Pathways to Work plan is investing £1.8 billion in employment support for disabled people. Ex John Lewis supremo, Charlie Mayfield, has also been tasked with making recommendations for government to transform the workplace so it’s more accessible to disabled people. The Learning and Work Institute also found that up to 165,000 disabled people could benefit from Labour’s plans, giving them the chance of a good job and a route out of poverty.
This government’s new trailblazer schemes are already making a difference. West London Alliance, which covers my patch of Ealing Southall, emailed disabled people on long-term sickness benefits due to musculoskeletal conditions, asking if they wanted help finding a job. Over 200 replied immediately to say yes! That’s 200 people who had been sitting on benefits with no help at all under successive Conservative governments. Liz Kendal and Alison McGovern are absolutely right to want to help disabled people who were consigned to the scrapheap by the previous government.
My Bill would ensure that disabled people can stay in jobs for the long-term and don’t end up being kicked out after a few months. It would guarantee a response to adjustment requests for over 5 million disabled workers and help open new job opportunities for many more.
Too many disabled people face losing jobs they love, not because they can’t do the work, but because they’re denied the support they need to succeed. Labour’s plan presents a once in a generation opportunity to transform the workplace and reshape it around the needs of disabled people.
My Bill would help make that ambition a reality, unleashing the many talents of more disabled people who want to work.
Transforming the workplace for disabled people
