disabled employees

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 makes it unlawful for a company to select a disabled employee for redundancy on the ground of his or her disability. The Act also puts employers under a duty to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate disabled employees ( duty to make adjustments ). A company may therefore need to consider whether it should make any adjustments to the way in which it applies selection criteria to disabled employees. The disability Code of Practice states, for example, that it is likely to be reasonable to discount disability-related sickness absence when applying a selection criterion related to attendance.

Even after the company has made reasonable adjustments to the way in which it applies its selection criteria, it may still end up selecting a disabled employee for redundancy for a reason that is linked to his or her disability. If this happens, the employer will not be acting unlawfully, provided it can justify its decision on relevant and substantial grounds (justification ).