The Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) has welcomed the National Disability Strategy launched by the government which may impact the experience of pharmacists with disabilities.
However, the association believes that there are additional measures that could have been included, such as ‘Disability Pay Gap’ reporting in the strategy.
PDA also supports the proposal from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) that has called for flexible working arrangements for helping workers manage their health.
The TUC also polled over 2,000 disabled workers in February 2021, looking at their experiences getting reasonable adjustments before and during the pandemic. It found that 4 in 10 disabled workers aren’t getting the reasonable adjustments they need.
The PDA has been supporting pharmacists who have been discriminated against because of disability, and a failure to provide reasonable adjustments is one way in which discrimination can be evidenced.
It encourages all employers to educate their managers about disability and the rights of disabled employees and invites pharmacists who wish to support the work of the Ability Network, whether or not they have a disability, to join here.
PDA Ability Network enables all disabled pharmacists to realise their full potential and raise their profile by being educationally, socially and politically active. The network is one of four Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) networks at the PDA.
