Disabled workers’ experiences during the pandemic

The TUC has carried out new research into the experiences of disabled people around work and workplace support during the pandemic.  However, this report also contains useful information about this situation pre-pandemic.

Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic disabled workers faced huge barriers getting into and staying in work, including significant difficulties in accessing reasonable adjustments, in spite of the fact that this is a legal duty for employers.

The pandemic, and the huge changes it has caused to our everyday lives, has exacerbated the barriers disabled people face. Not only have disabled people been disproportionately affected in terms of loss of life, with six in 10 Covid-19 related deaths being disabled people, but pre-existing workplace barriers have been accentuated by the pandemic.

They conducted this research to better understand how pre-existing workplace barriers have been affected by the pandemic and the impact it has had on disabled workers.

One in eight disabled workers did not tell their employer about their disability, health condition or impairment, with many believing that telling their employer would lead to negative consequences.

Almost one in four of these (24 per cent) said that they did not tell their employer they were disabled because they thought that, as a direct consequence, they would be treated unfairly. And over a third (38 per cent) did not tell their employer because they were worried that if their employer knew they were a disabled worker they would think that they could not do their job.

The TUC feel these findings speak to negative workplace cultures where discriminatory attitudes towards disabled workers influence how safe workers feel to be open about being a disabled person.

These fears of being treated poorly are well founded. Our findings show that the prevalence of unfair treatment is alarmingly high. Around one third of disabled workers responding to our survey reported being treated unfairly at work because of their disability, health condition or impairment.

The research found that around one in eight disabled workers (13 per cent) were concerned their disability, health condition or impairment had affected how their performance would be assessed by their manager. A similar proportion (12 per cent) were concerned their disability, health condition or impairment had affected their chances of a promotion in the future. And 7 per cent had their commitment to their job questioned.

And one in 12 disabled workers (8 per cent) told us they had been subjected to bullying and/ or harassment, for example being ignored or excluded, singled out for criticism or excessive monitoring at work.