Research Project
Employer/Employee Rights and Responsibilities - Disability Discrimination and Health & Safety
In October 2004, new regulations come into force as part of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The regulations include issues surrounding employment of disabled people and also access to premises for the disabled. You can get an outline of the key measures by following the links below.
- Access to services - Disability Rights Commission (http://www.drc-gb.org/businessandservices/access.asp)
- Employment - Disability Rights Commission (http://www.drc-gb.org/publicationsandreports/campaigndetails.asp?section=emp&id=336)
Image: Paying for the cost of improving access to buildings, providing disabled access toilets and other aspects of the legislation can be expensive and not always practical for a business. Copyright: Joseph Zlomek, stock.xchng
Task 4
Look at the information given via the links above.
- What problems might businesses face in seeking to meet their statutory responsibilities in seeking to provide suitable access for disabled people?
- The legislation refers to taking 'reasonable' steps to ensuring compliance with the legislation. What do you think the definition of 'reasonable' means in this respect?
- What differences might large, medium and small firms face, in respect to meeting the responsibilities laid down by the legislation?
- Think of TWO different retail outlets with which you are familiar. To what extent do they meet the requirements of the legislation from October 2004?
Some businesses and industries will be affected by legislation more than others. Industries where, for example, there is a high proportion of female workers may be affected more by legislation relating to maternity rights or sex discrimination; firms located in areas with a varied ethnic mix may be affected more by laws on race discrimination and firms in industries such as construction, food preparation and those dealing in hazardous substances may be more susceptible to the requirements of the Health and Safety laws.
Task 5
Below is a list of different firms in different industries. Identify where you think the main health and safety factors would need to be accommodated by such firms. What would you need to think about to make sure that you did not breach health and safety regulations?
- A firm preparing ready meals for a major supermarket chain
- A firm involved in office block construction
- A firm using welding equipment in the manufacturing process
- A university chemistry department
- A pharmacy (chemist)
- An open plan insurance company office
- Workers installing exhaust systems in car manufacturing
- A haulage company involved in transporting livestock
- A firm specialising in asbestos removal
- Workers employed in a supermarket dealing with dairy products
- A dairy farm
The following two sites will help you in the last task:
- An introduction to health and safety (http://www.hse.gov.uk/smallbusinesses/gettingstarted.htm)
- Health & Safety Executive free leaflets (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/leaflets.htm)
Biz/ed's 'Wanna Argument', Dying for a Job: Avoiding the Blame for Work-Based Fatalities, will also be helpful for this exercise (http://www.bized.co.uk/current/argument/arg12.htm).