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Employment: Scope - extensions and exceptions

Section references
are to DDA 1995 as amended, available on the DRC website - 'DDA and related statutes'.
Inclusions
Exclusions
Other points

Inclusions:

As well as employees, the DDA employment provisions or similar provisions also extend to certain other people, most importantly:

There are also provisions on occupational pension schemes and provision of insurance - e.g. BUPA - to employees (part 10 of Code)

The DDA covers employers in respect of people they employ wholly or partly at an establishment in Great Britain (section 4(6), para 3.9 of Code). From 1st October 2004 it also covers employees on certain ships, planes or hovercraft or oil rigs and certain employees working wholly outside Great Britain (new section 68(2) - (2D) and (4A)).

Exclusions:

The armed forces are excluded from the DDA, after October 2004 as well as before it (section 64(7)). The Government insists that members of the armed forces should remain outside the DDA on the grounds that all service personnel need to be combat effective. "Decisions on military health and fitness standards are for the Ministry of Defence and not for Employment Tribunals". The Disability Rights Commission has asked the Government to reconsider this position . The DRC says: "Adequate safeguards can be provided under the DDA to allow operational effectiveness to be maintained, as has been accepted in relation to occupations such as firefighting and the police."
There is a group of links on the BSA website employment page (www.stammering.org/employment.html) to articles on experiences of people who stammer in the armed forces.

Before 1st October 2004, other people or situations to which the employment provisions did not apply included:

Other points:

Volunteers

Many volunteers are not covered by the DDA. They fall within the DDA if they are an "employee", or a person who "contracts personally to do work". Whether this is so will depend on the situation. Newham Citizens Advice Bureau v Murray is an example of a case where the EAT considered that the employment tribunal had too easily found a volunteer not to be within the DDA. The DDA is also likely to apply if an organisation uses volunteering as a way of assessing an individual's suitability for particular work there, or in the case of a 'work placement' (see above) where a volunteer undertakes practical work experience for a limited period for the purposes of vocational training. There is more on when the DDA can apply to volunteers in paragraph 6.2 of the DRC guidance linked from the next paragraph.

For situations where the DDA does not apply to volunteers, the Disability Rights Commission published guidance in 2007: Recruiting developing and retaining disabled volunteers - Guidance for volunteer opportunity providers (link to DRC site).

See also proposed changes.

Performance related pay

From 1st October 2004, performance related pay schemes are discussed in para 8.5 - 8.6 of the Code.

Before that date these schemes were not covered by the Act, even though they might result in a disabled person earning less (reg 3 Disability Discrimination (Employment) Regulations 1996/1456). The scheme had to apply equally to all employees, or all or a particular class of employees. (Disabled people may also be more productive than some other people and may earn more under them under PRP).

Charities etc

There are also certain exceptions relating to disabled charities and to supported employment (section 10 #).

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© Allan Tyrer 1999-2007
Last updated 7th March, 2007