DISABILITY AFFECTING ABILITY TO GAIN EMPLOYMENT

[Doug99]

I thought that under DDA, disabled job seekers are given special dispensation and can request a 'guaranteed interview' if they are suitably qualified for the position being advertised.

 

[EddieM]

My friend is a Accredited Lean Practitioner and is also disabled due to a spinal injury.
She is able to cope with most everyday tasks but does require help for 'heavy' tasks or doing things at height such as changing a light bulb.
Over the past 18 months she has applied for 4 jobs that she is fully qualified to do, and had done this work for a number of years for the DWP, yet she has not even been granted an interview. All 4 jobs have been with the same company and she has discovered that 3 of those positions were filled by people less qualified than her. After the last rejection she has asked for written evidence for the reason why she did not get an interview and also a copy of their disability policy. It is now a month later and despite a number of follow up emails requesting this information she has had no response. She is now going to seek advice from the Disability Rights Board to what action she can take to force them to comply. It is a very large company listed on the FTSE, not a small family type of business.

I would suggest the OP contacts previous employers and asks them for written clarification why he was dismissed from his position. If they say because of staff re-organisation/redundancies etc he should ask for a copy of their selection criteria and a copy of his assessment results.

To the OP, you are NOT being paranoid. Our experience is that Disability Discrimination is rife throughout all sectors of industry, both private and public.

Sadly there is nothing to compell them to even respond.

Ageism,racism,sexism and all other ism's very rife in industry... its up to the person who feels discriminated against to prove it not for a company to disprove it which is often nigh on impossible most of the time especially if they never got the job in the first place.

 

[conny]

I thought that under DDA, disabled job seekers are given special dispensation and can request a 'guaranteed interview' if they are suitably qualified for the position being advertised.

Quite right Doug, they can tick a box which gives them a guaranteed interview, however, my friend does not believe in gaining what she terms an 'unfair advantage' over other applicants just because she has a disability. She believes her application, and all others, should be judged on their content and qualifications not because the firm has to reach some false ideal thought up by some government jobsworth.

Eddie, when she enquired after the second application why she didn't get the job she was told it had been filled by someone more qualified than her. As she was once the Lead Lean Practitioner for East Anglia DWP with over 1500 people under her leadership she thought they must be very highly qualified. I discovered that the person who got the job was actually a Lean Facilitator, i.e. someone who had been on a 5 day course to learn the basics of Lean Management. She knows what a facilitator is because she used to run the courses! I know who it was because I actually work for the company involved, and to date, this person has never been introduced to any of the workers and we have seen no evidence of anything he is supposed to have done.

 

[geek84]

Hi Folks

Many thanks for your valuable contributions.

Any further advice greatly appreciated.