Well, I hope James Purnell is reading this report.
In the first comprehensive survey of discrimination in the workplace, the commission found 11.6% of employees with a disability or long-term illness experienced physical violence at work, compared with 5.5% of other employees. It said 8.8% of disabled people sustained an injury as a result of violence or aggression at work, compared with 4.7% of able-bodied people.
And with the ongoing attacks on welfare through sanctions and penalties forcing people to get any old job this report is not surprising in the least. Employers aren’t exactly encouraging disabled people into the workplace and the statistics speak for themselves (from Labour Market Outlook).
1. 18% of employers say would exclude job applications from people claiming Incapacity benefit due to mental distress.
2. 10% would exclude people claiming IB because of physical health difficulties.
3. 90% of employers’ say it would be impossible or difficult to employ a visually impaired person.
4. 60% of employers’ discriminate against dependency issues such as people with a criminal record, mental health issues and incapacity.
So will NL put any penalties on employers? Sharpen anti-discrimation laws? Improve working environments? Encourage training and education? Somehow I doubt it… Because it is all about supply-side economics, productivity and people being mere drones, cogs in the wheel. Having a different set of ideas about work would help.Yes if work is the alienated and alienating waste of time that it often is at present would not a different view of how humans can make a productive contribution make a difference? What about democratic participation in deciding what needs to be done and by whom actually involve people on their own terms?
This may be utopian but we have got to start being able to think differently about these things. Otherwise being fit for work will always be about making yourself into an automation for corporate capitalism: a system at the end of the day that is built on bullying both subtle and not so subtle.
