I was told by a senior member of staff work that there is ‘no point’ in making my reasonable adjustment needed for me to be in the office, because staff move desks a lot anyway at our company, despite me asking for the minute task of one light being removed from above one desk.
Pretty disheartening!
At the time I was quite upset at being denied the absolute basics of having a desk to sit at in work, but now I’m having the adjustment of working completely remotely, so I’m putting my disgust to one side for a while whilst I recoup some energy to go back and argue it for the fifth time and decided that, instead, I would blog about what constitutes a reasonable adjustment in the workplace, under UK law.
What is a reasonable adjustment?
A reasonable adjustment is defined by ACAS as changes made by an employer to remove or reduce a disadvantage related to a disability.
For example, in terms of my trigeminal neuralgia, I can’t work directly near an air conditioning unit, so a reasonable adjustment for me is that it would be turned off when I was in the office, or I wouldn’t be sat anywhere near one.
ACAS states a reasonable adjustment is making changes to the environment, changing working arrangements, finding a different way of doing things and/or providing services, equipment or support, specific to the individual’s requirements, needs or disability.
The Equality Act (2010) states that companies need to make reasonable adjustments by law, for all workers, contractors and even job applicants, when they know (or could reasonably be expected to know) that someone has a disability. They have a requirement to make an adjustment if someone with a disability asks for one, or if someone who is disabled is having difficulty in doing their job because they need an adjustment to be made.
What is “reasonable”?
Reasonable means the adjustment must remove or reduce the disadvantage, is practical and affordable (within reason – and if it is not affordable, another adjustment needs to be made) and will not harm the health or safety of others. The scope on what is reasonable is pretty large and vague, for good reason. An employer would have to prove that they couldn’t provide the reasonable adjustment for a good reason, if taken to court: a great example of disability rights.
The employer is responsible for the financial costs of an adjustment, not the employee.
Reasonable adjustments in practice
Does an employer have to make reasonable adjustments by law? Yes.
Will an employer be quick to make these? Probably not.
The reality is, no matter how many great companies there are out there that do want to help their staff, there are twice as many companies that won’t see disabled people as a priority, or aren’t adequately educated in reasonable adjustments, or simply hope you will go away and sort the problem for yourself, which isn’t always possible.
My top tips for reasonable adjustments, from experience, are:
- Make all your requests in writing, so you have a paper trail with dates, because you may need these to refer back to if you need to call ACAS
- Call ACAS. For advice, if it goes wrong, if it’s going slow, if it’s not happening at all, if you don’t know where to start. Call ACAS.
- If in doubt, ask to be referred to occupational health, who will be able to document in writing recommendations of adjustments to help you.
Your workplace might have a formal way of requesting reasonable adjustments, or they might want to do this informally in a meeting – you should still follow this up with something in writing.
ACAS also have a great section on their website about what to do if you feel your adjustments haven’t been suitable, or haven’t been made at all.
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