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Timestamp: 2014-10-23 21:55:02
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The duty to make reasonable adjustments aims to remove barriers that prevent disabled persons from integrating fully into the workplace. Employers are required to make reasonable adjustments to any of their provisions, criteria or practices that place a disabled person at a particular disadvantage compare to non-disabled persons. This is an onerous duty that can require an employer to do things for a disabled person that it would not have to do for others. The Statutory Framework
DDA 1995, s 4A sets out the substance of the duty to make adjustments and is the section that requires employers to make reasonable adjustments to prevent the PCP that they have applied having a disadvantageous effect. DDA 1995, s 3A(2) provides that a failure to comply with the duty to make adjustments is discrimination.
DDA 1995, s 4 - Discrimination is only unlawful under the DDA 1995 if the circumstances fall within DDA 1995, s 4. Before any question of a breach of duty arises therefore the tribunal must firstly determine whether DDA 1995, s 4 entitles the person to make a claim. The Reasonable Adjustments Test
First Step Is the person protected?
Second Step Did the duty to make adjustments arise?
Third Step What adjustments were reasonable?
Fourth Step What did the employer know?
First Step - Is the Person Entitled to Make a Claim?
The starting point is for the claimant to show that he or she is entitled to the protection of the DDA. This requires the claimant to, show not only that discrimination occurred in the sort of circumstances envisaged in DDA 1995, s 4 but also that the claimant is in a category of persons entitled to make a claim. Second Step – Did the Duty to Make Adjustments Arise?
Part1 - identify the relevant PCP / physical feature
Part 2 - identify the non-disabled comparator
Part 3 - identify the nature & extent of disadvantage
Part 1 – Identify the PCP
Part 2 – The Comparator
To illustrate, take an employer who has a rule that applicants who cannot type at 55 words a minute will not be offered an interview. The claimant in our example is disabled by arthritis which means that he cannot type at more than 40 words a minute. He is refused an interview. Four non-disabled people however were able to fulfil the criteria and were offered interviews. The PCP is the employer’s criterion that the candidate must be able to type at 55 words per minute in order to be offered an interview. The comparators in this example are the 4 applicants who were not disabled and who were not disadvantaged by the PCP because they were invited to an interview. Part 3 – Identify the Nature and the Extent of the Disadvantage
Once the comparator is identified it is a relatively straightforward step to then identify the nature and extent of the disadvantage. An employer is required to make an adjustment to alleviate a disadvantage if the disadvantage is substantial. “Substantial” in this context bears a similar meaning to “substantial” in s.1 of the DDA. In other words the disadvantage must be “more than minor or trivial”.
Third Step – Identifying What Adjustments are Reasonable
The test that tribunals apply when considering whether an employer has made a reasonable adjustment is an objective one. In many employment cases such as unfair dismissal cases an objective test means that the tribunal will ask itself whether the employer’s actions were within the range of reasonable responses open to the employer. This is NOT the test used in reasonable adjustments cases.
If the tribunal considers that there was an adjustment that was not made and which was reasonable then the employer will be found to have breached the duty. The tribunal is only concerned with what the employer did or did not do and the employer’s motive is irrelevant. The employer can accidentally comply with the duty. Equally the employer may try very hard to comply with the duty but fail to make an adjustment that the tribunal considers would have been reasonable. Although an employer will have a defence if it did not know that the person was disabled and disadvantaged by its PCP it is no defence to assert that the employer did not know that a particular adjustment was available. The objective nature of the duty to make adjustments makes it a very onerous duty and also makes it harder for employer to predict whether they have complied with it.
(g) where the step would be taken in relation to a private household, the extent to which taking it would—
(ii) disturb any person residing there. Of course this is not an exhaustive list and other factors may well be relevant. As we have already seen the adjustment must be effective in order to be considered reasonable and it is clearly unreasonable to expect an employer to make an adjustment that does nothing to alleviate the disadvantage suffered by the disabled person. Other factors such as the expense of the adjustment are also relevant and the more expensive the adjustment the more unlikely it is that the tribunal will consider it to be reasonable. The tribunal must consider the circumstances as a whole and so, for instance, the expense of the adjustment may be less relevant where the company in question is very wealthy and has many thousands of employees.
Employers are judged according to the tribunal’s own assessment of what is reasonable. Given that, in many circumstances, reasonable minds can differ it is difficult for employers to predict whether the tribunal will agree that they have implemented all reasonable adjustments. How can an employer maximise its chances of being found to have complied with the duty?
Unfortunately there is no right answer. This can be particularly frustrating for managers, most of whom make every effort to comply with their duties. The only way for an employer to maximise his chances of getting it right is to consult as widely as possible on what adjustments to make. Occupational therapists can be a great assistance in this regard, as can the disabled person him/herself.