Research exploring ways to improve the Disability Confident Employer Scheme in Wales - Employment problems experienced by disabled people

Focus group discussions highlighted employment problems experienced by disabled people that a scheme would need to address.

It was highlighted by participants that disabled people are often likely to be in low paid, insecure jobs that do not always accommodate flexible or home working.

Sector differences can have an impact on disabled people as some employers are doing ‘better than others’ in being able to effectively support disabled people in employment.

We've got care and leisure and other like affiliated services, sales and customer services and elementary occupations, and then admin occupations. So, some of those are the lowest paid jobs of all, and you'll see disabled people taking up more jobs in those sectors. So, I think this is a sector problem as well. And that those occupations are really, really underpaid. And those are the only ones that seem to be making any sort of adjustments for disabled people. (Trade union group participant)

Disabled people who are freelancers or are on a zero-hour contract may face additional barriers as they cannot always access trade union membership. It was reflected that trade unions cannot always represent this group of employees effectively.

Trade union participants highlighted they often try to reinforce the link between health and safety representatives and equality representatives. Trade union equality representatives have a role to play as they have statutory leverage which can be used to negotiate with employers and ensure reasonable adjustments are in place for disabled members. However, it was recognised that these roles could be better defined and having enough facility time is often lacking.

Most of our workplaces are small and our reps, you know, don't have the capacity and facility time. Sometimes the agreement is that it's not allocated to individual reps, it's shared across the entire committee or workplace branch. And then you're negotiating with your other reps in terms of how much time you can secure. (Trade union group participant)

Certain trade unions are collecting data on disabled people in poorly paid jobs and insecure work. However, it was highlighted that data currently being collected does not broadly consider intersectional disadvantage. For example, consideration of other protected characteristics.

So, contract types is really important when you look at this as well. So, you know, a big part of our work is around, you know eliminating zero-hour contracts and trying to get everyone on a proper contract. But you know that when you look at how that breaks down into intersections, you'll see that disabled workers, and particularly disabled Black, Asian and minority ethnic workers are doubly discriminated or even triply discriminated against. (Trade union group participant)

It was reflected that the UK Government had proposed disability gap reporting, and this signals a positive step forward. However, this relies on individual self-disclosure to an employer which can be problematic.

Participants from DPO’s and IG’s reflected that some people may not identify as disabled due to potential preconceptions from others.

Sometimes they're too worried to say that they're disabled or seek reasonable adjustments, because they're embarrassed about the nature of their symptoms, and they fear having to disclose and discuss them with an employer, which, I'm afraid to say does actually happen more often than you might think, and it can be incredibly intrusive and triggering. (DPO group participant)

Additionally, some disabled people may not be aware of their rights under The Equality Act (2010) and that they are eligible for support from their employer.

This presents a challenge for the employer to fully understand their workforce and ensure standards are being met fully to support disabled employees.

So, really difficult one for me because we operate in terms of the social model of disability and the social model is that your environment is the thing that disables you more than you as a person. So, it's really difficult to say disabled people should identify themselves. (Employers group participant)

The above quote illustrates the complexity of this issue, people may not wish to self-identify as disabled due to potential stigma and stereotyping associated. Additionally, the question was raised about whether, under the social model of disability, individuals should be required to self-identify. However, participants also reflected that this potentially leads to the employer and trade unions to not fully understanding the workforce they are meant to be supporting. In turn, disabled people are potentially not getting the appropriate support they are eligible for.

Participants reflected there is a need for greater public awareness of barriers for disabled people so employers can create a safe working environment to encourage disclosure.

Trade union participants also reported problems of ableism in the workplace. This concept may be poorly understood by some employers.

We've had loads of examples where we've been asked to call in reps because there is, you know, a lot of workplaces are ableist by their definition. (Trade union group participant)

Finally, workplace size is noted as having a differential impact and may restrict resources that can be committed to disabled people.

But yes, and I mean again, it's like we found with the project that most of the employers, when we look at it, percentage wise were SMEs. They weren't public sector. Public sector tended to be the employees for the supported internship programs, but other than that, they were so hard to get into even having those supported employment agencies and job coaches involved. It was really difficult, because they constantly put barriers up, and you've kind of like got to get to the right person that can make the decision. And we still often find, you know, that it's all health and safety. It's a health and safety issue. Of course it's not. There's still much work to be done. Still, so much. (DPO group participant)