Universities need to ‘ redouble their efforts ’ to support disabled staff

Higher education delegates in Newcastle voted yesterday to build on the success of UNISON’s Year of Disabled Workers 2022, and continue to work to improve the experience of disabled members. Sanchia Alasia of the national disabled members’ committee proposed a motion aimed at “securing the legacy” of the campaign’s achievements, “because disabled staff still face discrimination in our universities.” The union used the Year of Disabled Workers to highlight the important contribution disabled members make to the union, to improve terms and conditions for disabled workers, including in higher education, and to campaign for improved rights for all disabled workers. Ms Alasia told delegates: “We know that employers need to do more to address the barriers that disabled staff face, in being appointed into more senior level positions in our workplaces. They need to redouble their efforts to eliminate the different outcomes for staff by addressing these imbalances, robustly and sustainably. “The majority of disabled staff in universities are concentrated in the lower grades in our workplaces. Even when they do progress, they reach a plateau and do not progress at the same rate as their non-disabled counterparts. “We also need workplaces to investigate further the starting salaries of new staff who are appointed, to see whether there is a disparity between the salaries of disabled and non-disabled staff.” The motion notes that it will take more than one year to ta...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article News 2023 National Higher Education Conference 2023 year of Black Workers year of the disabled worker Source Type: news