The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (the Commission) recently provided its annual report to the Houses of the Oireachtas. The third report of the Commission’s work as the independent national human rights and equality body outlines an increase in overall activity in carrying out its statutory functions. Disability queries top employment equality statistics The top 3 public concerns related to the Employment Equality Acts 1998 – 2015 (the Acts) focus on discrimination in employment on the grounds of disability (31%), race (19%) and the gender ground (18%). Disability ground The Acts prohibit discrimination on the grounds of gender, civil or family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race or membership of the Traveller community. The statistics in the Commission’s annual report confirm that the disability ground is the basis for most claims and queries. The disability ground has been broadly interpreted by the courts. It is important therefore that employers have a good understanding of how the law deals with disability in the workplace. The Acts define disability as: -
- the total or partial absence of a person’s bodily or mental functions
- chronic disease or illness
- the malfunction, malformation or disfigurement of a part of a person’s body
- a condition that results in a person learning differently from a person without that condition
- a condition that affects a person’s thought processes, perception of reality, emotions or judgments, or which results in disturbed behaviour.
Reasonable accommodation Employers are not obliged to hire, promote, retain or provide training to persons who are not capable of doing a particular job. It does not follow that a person with a disability is incapable of doing the job until the employer has considered if there are appropriate measures which would allow the disabled person to do the job. Employers must, therefore, take appropriate measures to meet the needs of workers and job applicants who have disabilities. This means employers should investigate the practicality of implementing measures that ensure people with disabilities are allowed to do perform their duties along with their colleagues. Disproportionate burden Employers will not have to take appropriate measures if such measures would place a disproportionate burden on the employer. An assessment of whether appropriate measures are disproportionate or not looks at the financial costs, other relevant costs such as employee time/disruptions to productivity and the financial resources of the employer. Some appropriate measures will not cost anything such as providing flexible hours for example. Employers are also advised to explore if public funding or grants are available before deciding whether appropriate measures represent a disproportionate burden. To find out how to safeguard your business against discrimination claims, call our 24-hour advice line on 0818 923 923
