Reasonable adjustments at work are actions taken by employers to allow disabled workers to find jobs, perform their duties and advance in their career on an equal footing with others. Reasonable adjustments are governed by the Non-discrimination Act.
According to Susanna Hernberg, collective agreement expert at TEK, reasonable adjustments at work can include assistive devices or refer to the provision of training or the way work is organised. Examples of reasonable adjustments include:
- wheelchair ramps and slopes
- providing a quiet workspace in an open-plan office
- various working time arrangements, such as reduced working hours, remote work or, in the case of shift work, working day shifts only
- adjusting the lighting or acoustics in the workplace
- accessibility of information through IT solutions, if the employee has a visual or hearing impairment, for example
- opportunity to take breaks at work and providing a rest area.
Who is eligible for adjustments?
According to law, reasonable adjustments may be made to accommodate people with disabilities. The challenge is that there is no unambiguous legal definition of disability.
“The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities must be taken into account when interpreting the Non-discrimination Act,” says Susanna Hernberg.
The UN Convention defines persons with disabilities as “those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”.
“The concept of disability must be understood as an impediment that limits the ability to work, not as an inability to work altogether,” says Hernberg.
A disability can be congenital or the result of an accident or it can be a long-term limitation of functional capacity caused by an illness, for example.
TEK’s Work Life Expert Sirkku Pohja finds the term disabled problematic.
“Very few people who need adjustments want to be identified as disabled. I think we should reconsider the terminology. Instead of disabled, we could simply describe these employees as different. After all, their disability may not necessarily affect their job! Consider, for example, a researcher in a wheelchair. If you’re working with your head, it doesn’t matter whether your legs work or not,” she says.
According to Pohja, the law starts from the premise that a disability is something that makes it difficult for a person to perform normal life activities, such as work, in the long term.
Adjustments may be needed even without a visible disability or diagnosis. Pohja believes that employers should offer reasonable adjustments to neurominorities, for example.
“A good employer is someone who sees the employee as an individual.”
According to Pohja, adjustable lights and electrically adjustable desks, for example, do not bother anyone, but they can be of great help to someone who is light-sensitive or in a wheelchair. Accessible spaces are useful for everyone, but necessary for some.
“Adjustments are all about attitude. Recognising that not everyone’s legs work in the same way and that other people’s minds require certain things to function.”
What makes an adjustment reasonable?
Normally, the employee must apply for reasonable adjustments themselves. However, the obligation to make adjustments also applies in situations where the employer is or should be aware of the employee’s disability even without the employee’s notification. For example, if the person is in a wheelchair, the need for accessible facilities is obvious.
An employee representative can also collectively request a reasonable adjustment, such as a quiet workspace. However, the employer is not obligated to agree to such a non-personal request.
Adjustment needs depend on the individual and the case. The employer is obligated to assess the employee’s work ability, if necessary. Based on this assessment, the employer may be obligated to offer adjustments.
Susanna Hernberg recommends that the employee and the employer involve the occupational health care in the assessment of work ability and the planning of adjustments.
What then makes an adjustment reasonable? It depends on the employer’s size and financial position and the nature and extent of the operations. In addition, the assessment of reasonableness is influenced by the need for adjustments, their estimated costs and the support available.
Employers can apply for a subsidy for arranging working conditions from the TE Office. Some adjustments may be more of an organisational rather than a financial issue.
“If the employer takes possible accommodations into account already when designing, renting or buying premises, adaptations will cost less than individual changes made later,” says Sirkku Pohja.
If the employer fails to make the adjustments required by an employee, the employee may, under the Non-discrimination Act, ask for a written explanation for the decision and the employer must provide this. According to Hernberg, the employee can then contest the situation, if necessary. The court will decide whether the requested adjustments were reasonable or unreasonable, such as too expensive.
If the court finds that the adjustments would have been reasonable, the employer can be considered to have discriminated against the disabled employee. The person who has been discriminated against is entitled to receive compensation from the employer that is equitably proportionate to the severity of the act. The severity depends on the type, extent and duration of the discriminatory act. The court will determine the level of compensation.