eNEWS | Deal with disability in the workplace or risk going out of business

Deal with disability in the workplace or risk going out of business

A press release from PricewaterhouseCoopers, 12 June, 2002, Johannesburg

Employers' indifference towards disabled staff could wreak havoc on organisations as legislators and employee bodies turn up the heat on "disability-blind" corporate policies.

Speaking at a disability conference held in Johannesburg, Dr Laurentia Truter, labour law expert at professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, warned business to take pro-active measures to deal with disability in the work place.

Excuses like "we do not have jobs for the disabled" or "we do not have the skills to manage disabled employees" were unproductive and could be costly to an organisation in the long run, argued Truter.

"Management time lost on handling disputes, adverse court judgements, low staff morale and damage to the organisation's reputation are just some of the ills associated with a poor disability management strategy or lack thereof." Disability, unless dealt with proactively, will become an unaffordable business risk," she said.

Truter said ignorance towards disability would lead to higher incidents of unfair discrimination, litigation, harassment and victimisation claims.

She said most organisations avoided dealing with disability by "outsourcing" disabled staff to pension funds while those without disabled staff ran the risk of non-compliance with legislation.

She believes organisations lacking a proper disability management policy should embark on a "therapy" programme to rid themselves of the potential dangers that might arise.

"A proactive disability management programme combined with disability equity initiatives will provide a multi-faceted solution to many of the problems faced by employers," she recommended.

Compliance with the Employment Equity Act and observing the ILO disability management code would put employers on the right track.

Apart from the obvious benefits of a proactive action plan, disability equity and management interventions had several benefits to an organisation, including:

Facilitating employer control of disability issues;
Legitimising the HR department's value to an organisation;
Ensuring compliance with employment equity legislation and international best practice;
Enterprise-wide risk management; and
Improving corporate competitiveness.

Truter urged corporate South Africa to maintain the view that disability issues were a business challenge rather than just a legal requirement, in order to achieve the maximum benefits of a diversified working environment.

Contact:

Laurentia Truter, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Tel: ++27 11 797 5935
e-mail: laurentia.truter@za.pwcglobal.com

Mapula Mashishi, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Tel: +27 11 797-4422
e-mail: mapula.mashishi@za.pwcglobal.com