NALGO NALGO curs SAVE NO CUTe SAVE MOBS NALGO NALGO curs SAVE YOUR Jons No cuts or job losses; act and unite to defend public services and jobs NALGO VUR Youn FUTTIDAL TORY moves to head off the disability rights lobby with a package of largely cosmetic measures could take 15 years or more to show any results.
New legislation tabled on January 12 by William Hague, the Minister for Disabled People would scrap the existing, almost universally flouted quota system, which ought to ensure that large employers include at least 3 percent of disabled people in their workforce.
Rather than attempt to enforce or tighten up this legislation, Hague has decided instead to legislate a 'statutory right of non- discrimination' for people with disabilities, which is equally certain to be ignored in practice.
There is no mechanism to enforce this even more vague policy, while the accompanying measures to make workplaces and premises accessible are so timid and general that they are most unlikely to make any real difference.
Employers would be required to make "a reasonable adjustment" to working conditions to make them accessible for potential disabled employees - were they to take any on.
They would also be called upon (politely) to remove barriers and provide aids to ensure access to goods and services -but only "where reasonable and readily achievable".
Companies would have until the year 2010 to make these changes, though there are no definitions of what is 'reasonWorking Conference Benefits for Youth and Students • Workshops and disable', and no explicit sanctions against those who fail to comply.
The limited nature of the changes to premises is underlined by the estimated average cost to an average business of just £500- £1,500. Giving employers 15 years to make the changes means they are being asked to fork out a far from lavish £35-€100 per year!
No lifts "We can't have businesses going bankrupt, " Mr Hague told the Financial Times. "A company will not be expected to put a lift into a building at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds. But it might be expected to buy a piece of office furniture costing much less."
After insisting that Labour MP Roger Berry's much more specific and comprehensive civil rights Bill for the disabled (wrecked by Tory ministers and back benchers) would have cost a staggering f17 billion to implement, the government now asserts its own proposals would cost just over £1 billion. No business would have to spend more than 5-10% of the rateable value of its premises. While some right wing Tory hawks baulk even at this limited commitment, it is not surprising that most employers bodies have been giving the new Bill a welcome limited only by concern that the vagueness of the plans could mean some issues could wind up the subject of costly legal action.
Quango
Hague's Bill would also set up a new quango 'council' for the disabled, with even more vaguely-defined role and powers, aiming to defuse anger when the employment proposals, inevitably, fail to deliver the much-needed employment.
The new legislation reflects the sustained campaign pressure of disability groups which have shamed Tory MPs into a pretence of action. But it falls far short of the changes that could give disabled people access 'o public transport, buildings and a proper chance of That fight will go on. erly man with emphysema, was subsequently transferred again -in a coma - to Watford General Hospital so that another patient could have his bed. He later died.
More such scenes must be expected as a new wave of bed closures begins, led by the closure this month of the casualty unit at Bart's Hospital.
The cuts are striking deep into the Tory heartlands. Planned closures of A&E services in Hertfordshire have triggered mass demonstrations in the unlikely surroundings of Welwyn Garden City and Stevenage.
All ten district and borough councils in the county - many of them Tory-led - have banded together to fight the closures.
With Guy's campaigners preparing to occupy against threatned closure, the going could get even rougher for Virginia Bottomley.