The Disability Discrimination Act

Written by Brian Cotter MP, Shadow Small Business Minister and published in Professional Manager on Wed 1st Sep 2004

From the 1st October, small businesses will have a new legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to their premises in order to accommodate any disabled employees. Firms with less than 15 employees have, until now, been exempt from the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act, but following an amendment to the law, all employers will be required to change building features or work equipment, which restrict disabled staff in their work.

Around one million businesses will be affected, yet it is thought that just 3% of these employers are aware of the change. The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has received numerous calls from its members, who are confused about how to comply with the new rules. MPs have been offered a special course to help them comply with the new law, but most employers do not have the benefit of such advice and many will struggle with the new requirements as a result.

Employers that fail to plan ahead may end up facing unexpected costs from changes that are needed to make their premises more accessible for disabled customers and staff. Worse still, those that fail to comply with the law could find themselves before an industrial tribunal. Employment lawyers have also indicated that the legislation is much wider reaching than most small firms realise, the wide definition of 'disability' giving protection to employees suffering from all sorts of conditions.

New rights for disabled staff are of course welcome, but as with all employment

legislation, it is imperative that the specific needs of small firms are taken into account when implementing changes. Small businesses already spend an estimated 6 hours a week dealing with legislation. Unlike larger companies, they do not have vast human resource departments to advise them on employment matters and so it is imperative that the Government communicates with them in a way that allows them to easily understand their duties as employers. In this case, Ministers have again failed to achieve this objective.

On the one hand, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) are trying to make life easier for small firms by ensuring that new employment legislation produced by the Department, comes into force on just two days each year. This will make it easier for small employers to keep up with changes to the law, but the proposal has yet to be extended across Whitehall. The new disability discrimination regulations are an example of an important piece of employment legislation which falls outside the DTI's remit and thus the scope of this initiative. Yet, it is imperative that legislation of this nature is sufficiently highlighted and so common commencement dates for new employment legislation must be adopted across government as soon as possible.

Moreover, small firms must have access to easy to read guides in order to help them with compliance. The DTI's decision to cease producing hard copy prints of most of the employment rights advice booklets it publishes is therefore a particularly worrying development. Not every small business owner is in a position to access the online guidance Ministers increasingly point to and this must be addressed.

Ministers should be praised for bringing important new rights to employees, but we should scrutinize the way legislators ignore the challenges facing small firms in implementing such rights. Unless government works harder to help small businesses understand their duties as employers, owner managers will continue to view employment legislation with suspicion, which will ultimately undermine any progressive changes to the law.