By Gavin Mackintosh And Bethany Ruby Rose-
A new report from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has called for the government to compel large employers to collect and publish core information on their employment and pay of disabled people. The report stipulates large employers as that comprising of more than 250 staff supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).
The new report, Switching Focus, was published today to highlight the plight of disable people in he work place. It sets out a number of recommendations, and calls for greater responsibility and leadership from employers and the Government in improving the disability employment gap (currently 30%) and pay gap (currently 15%). LSE, known for its outstanding level of academic standard, high quality teaching, and extensive research, ranks among the world’s best when in educational standards. Recommendations from academics in institutions of this caliber are to be taken seriously.
The report calls for more financial support for employers as well as a higher level of transparency. It suggests a new fund that can be accessed by organisations when an employee with a fluctuating condition needs time off. Authors of the report say this will effectively address cost issues for the employer and remove anxiety about missing work for the individual.
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Other recommendations in the report include legislation changes to ensure new types of employment such as ‘gig’ jobs enable flexibility at work for employees. It also proposes action against newly emerging types of discrimination, such as the use of algorithms that screen job applicants on the basis of facial behaviour, as these can discriminate against people with visual impairments, strokes or speech impairments.
The report’s author Liz Sayce from the International Inequalities Institute at LSE states that the Government’s current focus on disabled people to tackle the problem themselves through requiring or supporting them to move towards work is unfair and ineffective.
Sayce highlights that recent figures show disabled people are over 60 times more likely than employers to face sanctions for non-compliance with requirements. In 2015-16 disabled people were sanctioned 69,570 times for missing appointments or infringing work-related conditions of benefit payment, with resulting reductions in benefit.
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She points out that employers in the same year were ‘sanctioned’ only around 1,100 times when disability discrimination cases were either settled or won by a disabled person at Employment Tribunal. Liz Sayce was Chief Executive of Disability Rights UK (and its legacy charity Radar) from 2007-2017, where she led work for equal participation for all, through programmes on independent living, career opportunities and shifts in cultural attitudes and behaviour.
Sayce , also a member of the Committee of Healthwatch England and the Social Security Advisory Committee, said “This report makes recommendations that place more responsibility on employers and Government. This would be fairer and it would also be much more effective. Work is changing, and if disabled people are to gain from future trends then disability needs to be at the heart of debate on the future of work.”
Image: lSE
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