STUC Disabled Workers’ Conference 2024: Usdaw seeks a social model understanding, and action to end bullying and harassment

Paddy Lillis – Usdaw general secretary says: “We are deeply concerned that large numbers of disabled workers are exposed to bullying and harassment at work. Young workers, women, LGBT+ and Black disabled workers are disproportionately impacted because of their unique combination of protected characteristics. While bullying and harassment takes many forms and affects workers differently, it can have a profoundly damaging impact on mental and physical health, on an individual’s personal and working life and on workplace cultures. Stereotypes about disabled people fuel discrimination and less favourable treatment. They prevent disabled people getting into work, remaining in work and getting on in work. They also have broader implications and can limit how disabled workers behave in the workplace as they seek to avoid situations and people that might put them at further risk. Harassment and bullying at work are part of a larger pattern of discrimination experienced by disabled people. Disabled workers, disability organisations and trade unions need to be consulted about the design and implementation of effective and preventative workplace interventions.”

Paddy Lillis continued: “The social model of disability is fundamental to eliminating discrimination and achieving equality and inclusion for disabled people. However, the medical model continues to dominate the law and the way in which employers understand and respond to disabled workers. This maintains and condones continued exclusion and inequality in the workplace. In Scotland, although the disability employment gap has reduced, disabled people still have a significantly lower employment rate than non-disabled people. Employers’ continued focus on ‘adjusting’ the worker – rarely the workplace – and removing barriers reinforces the widespread stereotype of disabled people as creating a ‘burden on business’. This shifts the onus onto the disabled worker to repeatedly demonstrate what they can’t do, rather than on employers to make workplaces accessible. Disabled workers are increasingly seeing adjustments removed, including adjustments to absence levels and performance targets, leading to disciplinary action and dismissal. Where this happens, the failure of employers to adopt a social model understanding ‘individualises’ disabled workers’ responses to discrimination and pushes them into seeking justice via internal grievance and legal procedures where the odds are stacked against them.