Should Our Company Have a Disability Policy?

We were asked recently whether a company needs to have a specific disability policy in place.

Answer

Our advice would be No this is not required. There can never be a specific policy on this due to the diversity of issues and how they need to be addressed and dealt with.

Why?

Issues with disability MUST be dealt according to the particular disability and individual situation.

A disability cannot be managed according to a policy or a strict set of rules.

Things to consider and think about when any employee has a disability;

Keeping in touch with employees and holding meetings with them – Speaking to employees about the frequency of reviews etc.
Prognosis and potential dates for return to work
The need and consideration of reasonable adjustments
Consider referring to Occupational Health or medical expert (GP / Consultant)
the ability for additional time off
capability processes, automated termination or voluntarily leaving /payments etc

A traditional policy can only go as far as state equality and this is now dealt with elsewhere. Should any employee have a disability, on it being disclosed we would always recommend that a disability plan is carried out discussing all the above however we would not wish to limit this by writing it in a policy—it’s something the employer has to do not something they want to do which means they can still be accused of discrimination.