Failure to make reasonable adjustments compensation: UK guidelines

What is failure to make reasonable adjustments?

It’s when an employer doesn’t make changes to a workplace, despite a request by a disabled staff member. Under the Equality Act 2010, your business must consider requests from employees and make adjustments where appropriate.

UK employment law on compensation for failure to make reasonable adjustments

There’s a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees when they’re placed at a substantial disadvantage by:

• An employer’s provision, criterion or practice
• A physical feature of the employer’s premises
• A employer’s failure to provide an auxiliary aid

Some examples of reasonable adjustments include adjusting the recruitment process, changing equipment, allowing a disabled person to make a phased return to work or making physical changes to the workplace.

The law to keep in mind with the failure to make reasonable adjustments is the Equality Act 2010. Under the Act, for an employee to be considered disabled they must show they suffer from a long term (i.e. 12 months or more) physical or mental impairment that has a substantial effect on their ability to carry out day-to-day activities.

Examples of failure to make reasonable adjustments

The following examples are all from the point of view of your business either making an error or refusing an employee’s request:

• Not offering equipment: Not offering supportive equipment or technology for an employee who is blind, leaving them to struggle in the workplace.
• Not offering suitable training: Failure to support an employee who is deaf with appropriate training.
• Preventing physical access: Refusing to change the layout of an office to make room for a staff member’s wheelchair needs.
• Restrictive accessibility and parking: Refusing to allow disabled car parking spaces in the company car park.
• Restrictive work modifications: Not allowing disabled employees more time to familiarise themselves with training, company protocols, and working conditions.
• Unfair task delegation: Expecting disabled staff members to perform heavy lifting instead of other employees.

The scope for other failures is considerable as there are thousands of potential variations. Ultimately, what’s required from your business is to consider every request and look to provide an effective solution.

Keep in mind that, on some fronts, refusing to support a disabled member of staff may result in a damaging business employment tribunal. That’s a worse case scenario, but another outcome could be an unhappy employee who may choose to leave your business.

Example failure to make reasonable adjustments: £75,300 in compensation

In the UK, one employee in late 2017 was awarded nearly £75,300 in compensation after their employer failed to make reasonable adjustments. In Bannister v The Commissioners, an employee went through a series of issues with an employer that resulted in a failure to make suitable changes.

The employee was eventually dismissed. The tribunal noted the employer had offered adjustments including a phased return to work, temporary reduction in hours, the removal of performance targets, and a lighter workload.

However, the tribunal concluded the employer had failed to make a reasonable adjustment by not allowing the employee to return to an original work station. The employee was awarded nearly £75,300 in compensation.

Stay compliant with workplace adjustments requests

Failure to make reasonable adjustments compensation can be damaging for UK businesses. Contact us today for immediate support on whether you’re facing reasonable, or unreasonable, workplace requests: 0345 226 8393.