Employers - beware of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
June 11, 2008
We recently got a call from an employer in Buckinghamshire who had a serious problem with an applicant for a position they had advertised.
The applicant, who was deaf, contacted the company to ask why he had not received the opportunity of an interview. Unfortunately, the wrong person took the call, informing the applicant that the company did not have any sign language facilities within the organisation.
The applicant sued the company under the DDA and at a subsequent tribunal was awarded £11,000 compensation.
fightyourcorner.com was contacted by the employer with a view to an appeal but, due to the circumstances, our Employment Law team advised the employer “not to throw good money after bad”. There was very little chance of the appeal being successful.
In addition to non compliance with DDA, the other lesson to be learned here is to make sure that whoever is dealing with employment issues is fully conversant with the latest employment law and DDA legislation. This is virtually impossible for most employers, who simply do not have sufficient time to keep up to date with all the complex constantly changing legislation being introduced.
This is one of the main reasons why fightyourcorner.com was set up 18 months ago. We are here to help employers, through our UK wide team of advisers, when problems arise and also in addition to being reactive, we help in a proactive way with advice on employment law strategy to help employers avoid the very serious problems, as illustrated here.
For further information and assistance with a confidential free initial consultation, call 0800 130 0473 or email: mailbox@fightyourcorner.com
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