Carers rights will change the way we work and live
By admin
There are more than 350,000 carers in Wales, more than a third of whom manage to hold down jobs. For many others, however, caring duties have made paid work impossible, but a European Court ruling later this year is likely to change all this and have major consequences for both carers and employers. Eleanor Williams, a leading discrimination lawyer with Darwin Gray Solicitors, believes the implications could be profound
The wheels of justice may turn imperceptibly slowly but sometimes when they do move – just a fraction – the impact can be far reaching. In January Sharon Coleman, whose son suffered from a disability in the first years of his life, won the initial stages of a case at the European Court of Justice which could give new rights to carers and have implications across society.
She had claimed that she was discriminated against and harassed by Attridge Law – her London law firm employers – because she had a disabled son. She claimed they treated her less favourably than they did parents of non-disabled children. She said she was accused of being “lazy” when she needed to take time off to care for her child, was threatened with disciplinary action over lateness, was refused permission to work from home when her child had to have an operation and was subjected to verbal harassment.
The wheels of justice may turn imperceptibly slowly but sometimes when they do move – just a fraction – the impact can be far reaching. In January Sharon Coleman, whose son suffered from a disability in the first years of his life, won the initial stages of a case at the European Court of Justice which could give new rights to carers and have implications across society.
She had claimed that she was discriminated against and harassed by Attridge Law – her London law firm employers – because she had a disabled son. She claimed they treated her less favourably than they did parents of non-disabled children. She said she was accused of being “lazy” when she needed to take time off to care for her child, was threatened with disciplinary action over lateness, was refused permission to work from home when her child had to have an operation and was subjected to verbal harassment.
She left the firm in March 2005 and brought a claim for constructive dismissal and disability discrimination.
In the European courts last January, the Advocate-General agreed that as a carer she had suffered “discrimination by association”. This landmark legal opinion means the case will be considered by the full European Court later this year and if it agrees (and it usually does) then UK law will have to change to fall in line with Europe.
The implications are enormous. In Wales there were 253,000 carers of working age at the time of the 2001 Census – 157,000 actually working. But with 90,000 people in Wales alone having caring duties of more than 50 hours a week, it is hardly surprising that one in five people gives up work to care. This is not only a clear inequality but also an economic drain. We are losing thousands of people from the workforce every year at a time when we have a shortage of skilled workers.
The implications are that every employer will have to look at their recruitment and employment practices and make sure they are not discriminating against carers.
These may appear to be fairly seismic changes but employers should rest assured that such a move would be carefully implemented. For instance, while legislation may allow carers time off work to attend to their caring duties, this would only be ‘reasonable’ time off and it would not have to be paid for.
To make sense of day-to-day employment practices, many employers will need a change of attitude towards employment and this must then manifest itself throughout the business or organisation so that all managers and staff understand what it involves.
For a start, employers must be aware of the reality of individual employees’ lives; from childcare during school holidays to the causes of sleepless nights. This attitude that some reasonable employers are already seen to have towards young mums should be extended to others.
Managers who work closely with their teams may already be aware of the pressures in their colleagues’ lives. Others, who are not as close-knit with their teams, will not be in this position. However, they all need to be familiar with anything that is likely to have a negative impact on their staff – not just in their ability to perform their work duties but also to fulfil other responsibilities outside of work.
This means actively look for signs that employers are struggling, looking tired or being persistently late for work and then joining the dots together to take a positive and constructive interest in what is going on. A fail safe could be introduced in the annual appraisal. Then that final, throw-away question – “Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?” – would become far more significant.
To avoid complications around issues of associative discrimination, a good start would be for managers to reassure colleagues that they value the contribution a colleague makes to the business and make it clear that they hope that colleague would turn to them should problems in their home life threaten to impact on their well-being at work.
Employers could be quite sanguine about any forthcoming legislation but the reality is that they have a window of opportunity to change their attitude now. If the European Court does agree with the Advocate General the legislation could come on to the statute books very quickly.
Of course, carers must be aware of what the changes mean to them. Effectively, they should see themselves as having the same opportunities as everyone else. They should not avoid applying for a job because they don’t think they could hold it down and they should not feel obliged to automatically give up work when the caring part of their lives requires extra time and flexibility.
Meanwhile, the Government is preparing to publish its National Carers Strategy this summer. It has been lobbied by Carers UK which is keen to see carers included in new equalities legislation next year that would protect them from discrimination in all aspects of their lives, not just employment.
In essence, how our society helps disadvantaged people to have equal opportunities in our society is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st Century. Sharon Coleman’s battle has led us to a golden opportunity to get it right.
