Reasonable accommodation - how hard is that?
1 December 2006
Helping a person with a disability to work doesn’t have to be hard, says Workbridge employment consultant Sue Sullivan. Employers have to think about the benefits that they’re gaining for the small amount of money they might spend in adapting their workplace, she says. “The pay-off is that they get a highly skilled worker who generates an awful lot more income than what it costs to order to help them,” she says.
The Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment on the grounds of disability where an employer can reasonably be expected to provide services or facilities to accommodate a person with a disability. Workbridge employment consultants have many examples where accommodation has been achieved quite simply.
- A Timaru construction firm is determined to retain an employee with Parkinson’s disease who has worked there most of his life. He has been moved from measuring and quoting to a less complex support role for that job. Problems with the man’s short-term memory mean the company has changed the way people give information, with noticeboards and diaries used to track tasks. Setting up different systems has benefited the company.
- In another case, a nearly-deaf worker needed to be able to tell when people entered the premises. A doorbell that sounded a frequency in the worker’s hearing range fixed the problem.
- A Blenheim seed company has a forklift driver who is losing his sight. His job has been modified so he works indoors as a storeperson, with a “massive” magnifying glass so he can read. The worker has initiated solutions such as tagging supplies with coloured paint and keeping lists on large sheets of paper, where he can write in large letters, instead of entering them in a book.
- Christchurch packaging firm Snell Packaging and Safety Ltd employs Rachael Battersby as a purchasing officer. Battersby lost an arm in a childhood accident. For her, reasonable accommodation meant having ergonomic consultants plan her office lay-out. Ergostyle Ergonomic Solutions made sure everything could be reached one-handed without overstretching. Workbridge helped her trial different keyboards designed for use with one hand, but in the end Battersby chose a standard keyboard with a special mouse tailored to reduce repetitive strain.
- Motor neuron disease could spell an early end to the career of a Christchurch handyman carpenter, but his employer has changed his job so he is now ordering stock, moving equipment around and doing some machining in the shop. The employer also provides an automatic truck so he can continue to drive.
- Workbridge changed its vehicle fleet five years ago and now leases only automatics. The change of the entire fleet has removed an obstacle to employing people with a disability who find manual vehicles difficult, says Workbridge administrator Nigel Jeffcoat.
Where a worker has a physical disability, “the employer still benefits from the expertise of a good worker”, Sullivan says. Support funding is available to top up shortfalls in productivity if a worker is slowed by disability.