Two-week employer deadline on reasonable adjustment request decisions – BDF responds

Business Disability has responded to a report published by the Work and Pensions Committee today (21 May) calling for a two-week deadline for employers to respond to reasonable adjustment requests from disabled workers.

Diane Lightfoot, CEO of Business Disability Forum, said:

“The timely provision of effective workplace adjustments is critical in enabling many disabled people to thrive at work. We support any measures that will help make sure disabled employees get the adjustments they need when they need them. There are many barriers in the adjustment process that need to be addressed to make this happens. Waiting time for an adjustment decision is one barrier, but we also need to address market and supply provision of technology, mobility aids and more.

“We also support the recommendation that any decline of adjustments should be made in writing. Too often we see that decisions about adjustments that are requested are binary – a straight yes or no rather than a discussion about what else might be possible to remove the barrier the individual is experiencing if the original request isn’t ‘reasonable’ or practical for the employer to provide. In line with this, we believe that all new employees in the workplace – not just those that the employer knows to be disabled – should have information about what adjustments are available to support them.”