Fear of coalition cuts heads TUC agenda

Sunil Peck

Delegates at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) disability conference have braced themselves for what they fear will be attacks against disabled workers instigated by the new government.

The TUC says that disabled people working as teachers, civil servants and in the NHS have so far not been disproportionately hit by job losses during the recession. But delegates fear that the situation could change because of significant cuts in the public sector where there are more disabled people than there are in the private sector.

Addressing delegates on the first day of conference, Mark Fysh (pictured), Chair of the TUC Disability Committee, warned that although the Labour government's policies affecting disabled people had given rise to concerns, things could be much worse under the new government.

He said: "We could be heading for the dark days of the 1980s again, and some of us never forgot what went on in the name of government then. It is too soon to know the detail of the government's policies, but we already know enough to expect them to be an even more brutal regime when it comes to forcing disabled people off benefits regardless of the availability of suitable jobs and regardless of the extent of the barriers."

He also said that  disabled people would find it harder to keep their jobs as employers sought to slash costs.

But he did welcome the fact that the Equality Act would make it illegal for employers to ask questions relating to a person's disability during the recruitment process.

Delegates went on to pass a motion proposed by the University and College Union (UCU) to fight the closure of the Centre for Deaf Studies at Bristol University.

Sasha Callaghan from the UCU said that the university had chosen to close the centre to hold onto its reserves at the expense of people's education and equality for deaf people and there was no evidence that the university had carried out an equality impact assessment.

She said: "The centre is one of only three places in the UK where people can take university courses in deaf studies. It's an amazingly valuable resource not just for deaf students but for people who want to be interpreters."

One sign language using delegate said that the closure would have a huge impact on deaf people because there were only 500 interpreters for 70,000 deaf people in the UK.

Les Woodward, national convener of the Remploy Trade Union Consortium, told delegates that RADAR had become an enemy to disabled workers by agreeing to undertake a feasibility study of supported employment sponsored by Remploy.

But he said that RADAR could be won over with the support of disabled workers.

Delegates were also told that the GMB union along with the Remploy Trade Union Consortium had set up a cooperative of disabled workers in York.

It will manufacture garden furniture and pet houses from recycled timber.

As well as passing other motions related to protecting disabled people against discrimination in recruitment and in work, delegates also passed a motion in support of the award of rights to screen the Paralympic games to Channel 4 rather than to Sky which a motion said many disabled people could not afford to watch. Delegates urged the TUC to do all it could to make sure that live events were broadcast to the maximum number of viewers.