UK: Disabled see worst layoffs in decades
Five percent of the disabled people that had a job have been laid off in the last 12 months as the ever enveloping recession hits all areas of employment. The job losses put the disabled people at risk in losing their cars and homes forcing them on the street or in nursing homes because there is no place for them. The disabled that are looking for a new job are finding out that the rolls of unemployed able bodied workers is also at the highest in years. So while they are competing with an ever increasing unemployed group the disabled are running into discrimination from employers that do not want to hire the disabled. There is a feeling that that the disabled will not work as hard as the able bodied and that they will have to modify the work area to help the disabled worker to do their job. Since no company wants to pay anything more than necessary for each worker it makes sense to get rid of the disabled workers as soon as possible and replace them with able bodied workers. According to reports fifty two percent of the disabled have experienced discrimination in the workplace. Because there are no laws that specifically protect the disabled from being replaced by the able bodied, it is expected that a larger percentage of the unemployed will continue to be the disabled until the economy improves or new laws are enacted to protect the disabled. For those that have a job, most find that the only jobs available are temporary jobs that have no benefits and are the first to be fired if the company cannot keep sales coming in. To make matters worse most disabled have little or no savings because of medical bills and other payments that the able bodied typically do not have to pay. This means that those that lose their jobs do not have anything to fall back on to pay the mortgage or car payment and run the risk that they will lose their only transportation to work or the doctor. (Source: The Independent)
Unfortunately the disabled are usually the ones that are the first to be laid off and that employers take advantage 9of those workers because they know how important the salary is. There are laws in place to protect the disabled so they will not be discriminated against but there are few agencies that are able to enforce the law. Even if the disabled person can prove that they have been discriminated against they need the money to hire a lawyer to go after the employer. If they do go after the company then they can be fired for other reasons. So most times the disabled just deal with the discrimination and hope that they can hang on to the job until the economy gets better and they can get another job.The government is working on a new law to protect the disabled workers called the "Equality Bill" and Parliament is discussing it. People that have been discriminated against are asked to contact their MP and let them know what happened and what could be done to fix the situation. Until this bill is passed into law the disabled will not have the same protections as the able bodied and will have to put up with unsavory managers that take advantage of their situation.
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