Equality and Human Rights Commission

Article 27 says:

• Disabled people have the right to earn a living through work that they freely choose and in workplaces that are accessible and inclusive.
• Governments should promote this right to work by:
  • ensuring disabled people are protected against discrimination in employment and are entitled to reasonable adjustments
  • ensuring disabled people can access work experience
  • ensuring disabled people enjoy fair working conditions, the same union rights as others and protection against harassment
  • employing disabled people in the public sector
  • promoting career development for disabled people including through access to training opportunities
  • promoting self-employment and employment in the private sector
  • supporting disabled people to stay in or get back to work.
• Disabled people should be protected against forced or compulsory labour.

What does this mean?

This is not a right to employment, but a duty on government to create conditions which promote the equal opportunities for disabled people to start earning a living through work. It is also a protection against being forced to work, and it gives disabled people right to access and non-discrimination in work. It could be used to demand more action to address discrimination during recruitment.

Reservation

When the UK Government ratified the Convention it made a statement about this article which limits its impact in Britain. The statement was a ‘reservation’ and it said that the exemption of the armed forces from the employment duties in equality law would continue because it was needed to ensure the forces were always ready and able to go into combat. The Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and disabled people’s groups opposed this. They said the armed forces should be subject to disability discrimination law.