Kathleen Kennedy, Branch Equalities Officer attended this year’s TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference in Bournemouth from 24-25 May as a UNISON National Disabled Members’ delegate.
In this role, Kathleen supported a motion calling for the introduction of reasonable adjustment passports which every disabled member of staff would carry, detailing their disabilities and the reasonable adjustments required.
Kathleen spoke on this motion in particular as it ties in with one of the motions approved at the AGMs this year about raising disability awareness.
Kathleen pointed out that a reasonable adjustment passport would be of great benefit to both a person with disabilities and to their employer and line manager.
She explained, “When a disabled worker moves jobs, the passport could be ‘passed’ to the new manager explaining why the person needs such reasonable adjustments, without them having to explain in detail why they need it.
“This saves on any embarrassing or awkward questions needing to be asked by the new manager.”
Kathleen added that like ‘normal’ passports, they would need renewed regularly as needs can change.
Kathleen concluded, “Nowadays time is money, therefore we feel this a very important motion for all concerned.”
This motion was overwhelmingly approved by the Conference.
Kathleen added that every member of UNISON delegation spoke in the debate at the conference which is something to be encouraged.