The Disability Discrimination Act repealed the former 1944 UK Employment act
which called for a 4% quota of disabled people to be employed. So far as I
recall, and I dare say there are print citations somewhere, possibly in the
Disability Alliances handbooks, that there were only ever a handful of
prosecutions, the act in effect being about as well used as the treason act.
It was seen as a somewhat pointless piece of legislation. However I am
tempted to say that the DDA is scarcely better so far as employment is
concerned as the difficulty is in the proof that one was discriminated
against because one was disabled, not because one did not fit the criteria
of the job. Indeed one way of getting round it seems to be constructing job
descriptions that discourage disabled people.
A law of any kind, be that a quota or a discrimination law is not much good
unless it is rigorously policed.
The real problem, and one which the laws fail to address, is the
undesirability of disabled people in employer's eyes.
Larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List [mailto:DISABILITY-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Andrea Shettle
> Sent: 16 December 2010 12:19
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: employment for disabled people- is a legal obligation for
employers
> effective?
>
> Unfortunately I am unfamiliar with what has been researched and cannot
comment on
> that aspect of your question.
>
> On a purely anecdotal basis, I've heard that where governments have tried
to impose
> quotas, this tends to be ineffective at least in some cases. For example
I've heard that
> some businesses will simply go ahead and pay the fine for disobedience
rather than hire
> workers who they assume will not be productive. Or they may hire someone
who is, as
> an example, missing a single finger or otherwise only very mildly or
technically
> experiencing an impairment so they can meet the quota but ignore the
spirit of the law
> by still refusing to hire people with more severe disabilities.
>
> I realize anecdotes are not what you are looking for.
>
> Anti-discrimination laws, at least the one in the US, does not seem to
have reduced the
> number of unemployed disabled people that much in my country. If you're
looking for
> comparative data for countries with different approaches to endeavoring to
end work
> place discrimination, then I'm guessing the US National Council on
Disabilities might
> have relevant studies on their website somewhere
>
> http://www.ncd.gov/
>
> Good luck,
> Andrea
>
>
> On Dec 16, 2010, at 5:50 AM, Matthias Leicht wrote:
>
age.
________________End of message________________
This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies).
Enquiries about list administration should be sent to [log in to unmask]
Archives and tools are located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can VIEW, POST, JOIN and LEAVE the list by logging in to this web page.
|