Trade unions as employment facilitators for disabled employees

Abstract

Can trade unions be effective representatives of disabled employees? The paper presents a qualitative case study of views and experiences of a range of trade union stakeholders related to a novel UK Union Learning Fund (ULF) project designed to represent neurological impaired employees employed in the UK rail/transport industry. The case study is the UK’s Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) Neurodiversity project that began in 2012. The findings are based on analysis of focus groups with TSSA members, interviews with neurologically impaired employees, Neurodiversity Champions and TSSA organisers. The findings suggest the Neurodiversity project attracted positive responses from TSSA members and neurologically impaired employees, with Neurodiversity Champions and TSSA organisers reporting successes with individual case work and shaping trade union-employer bargaining agendas. Despite examples of resistance from some employers, an increased number of employers took active steps as the project progressed to support neurologically impaired employees, and incorporate neurodiversity practices into organisational strategy. The study makes a unique contribution to wider debates, showing how trade unions can be effective representatives of disabled employees.

Keywords:

• Disability
• employment representation
• neurological impairment
• neurodiversity
• trade union
• Union learning Fund

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The project was part-funded by the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association/Union Learning Fund and part-funded by an internal research grant from Heriot-Watt University. The ratio of funding is two-thirds TSSA/ULR (£8 k) and one-third Heriot-Watt University (£4 k).