Disabled people in Britain face bullying at work

From The Guardian in the UK:

Disabled people are much more likely than the able-bodied to be hit, injured, bullied and humiliated at work, groundbreaking research for the Equality and Human Rights Commission will reveal today.

In the first comprehensive survey of discrimination in the workplace, the commission found 11.6% of employees with a disability or long-term illness experienced physical violence at work, compared with 5.5% of other employees.

It said 8.8% of disabled people sustained an injury as a result of violence or aggression at work, compared with 4.7% of able-bodied people.

The survey of 4,000 employees raised doubts about whether the government can achieve the goal of getting more disabled people into employment without tackling the discrimination they encounter in the workplace. It found 25% of people with a disability or long-term illness said someone was continually checking up on their work, compared with 19.4% of other workers. One in five disabled people said they were pressurised to work below their level of competence, compared with 13.5% of other workers.

People with a disability were almost twice as likely to believe that their performance at work was unfairly criticised (22.5%) or that they had been humiliated or ridiculed (13.4%.)

Employers, line managers and supervisors were responsible for nearly half the ill-treatment. Employees with learning disabilities or psychological problems are more likely to be abused than people with visual or hearing impairment.

The commission said: "Negative treatment at work may frustrate government policy by deterring people with disabilities or long-term illnesses from accessing or remaining in employment."