The findings of a survey for the Equality and Human Rights Commission show that "employees with a disability or long-term illness reported they were more likely to have negative experiences at work. These experiences range from low expectations of workers, bullying and humiliation to, in some cases, physical violence."

The main findings were:

Culture of low expectations

• 25% of people with a disability or long-term illness said someone was continually checking up on them and their work when it was not necessary compared to 19.4% of people without a disability or long-term illness.
• 19.3% of people with a disability or long-term illness said they were pressured by someone else to work below their level of competence compared to 13.5% of people without a disability or long-term illness.

Bullying and humiliation

• 22.5% of people with a disability or long-term illness said they had been the subject to persistent unfair  criticism of their work and performance compared to 13.4% of people without a disability or long-term illness.
• 13.4% of people with a disability or long-term illness said they had been humiliated or ridiculed in connection with their work compared to 8.7% for people without a disability or long-term illness.

Violence

• 11.6% of people with a disability or long-term illness said they had experienced actual physical violence at work compared to 5.5% of people without a disability or long-term illness.
• 8.8% of people with a disability or long-term illness said they sustained an injury in some way as a result of violence or aggression at work compared to 4.7% of people without a disability or long-term illness.

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