By Sarah Shearman
LONDON, July 7 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Returning to
work after lockdown is proving especially challenging for staff
at Britain's Bravest Manufacturing Company (BBMC), most of whom
have disabilities or are military veterans.
At the company's two factories in England, production lines
have been reconfigured to allow social distancing and employees
are being kitted out with protective gear suitable for those
with special requirements such as gloves for amputees.
"For some of these people it will be a huge change and means
the world that they knew and were used to has completely
altered," said Kate Bull, managing director of the company,
which produces signs and wooden pallets.
"The investment of time to get those people to feel safe and
manage the change... has been quite intensive," she told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation.
BBMC is one of hundreds of social enterprises – businesses
that aim to do good - worldwide that strive to build more
inclusive workforces by hiring people with disabilities who may
otherwise have limited job prospects.
As the coronavirus crisis causes millions of job losses
globally and leaves many companies struggling to stay afloat,
labour experts fear it could reverse progress on workers'
rights, particularly for vulnerable groups such as the disabled.
"It's a huge blow for disabled people generally because it's
hard enough to find jobs in normal times but under these
circumstances it is hard for everybody – but doubly so for
disabled candidates," said Jane Hatton, CEO of Evenbreak, a
recruitment social enterprise for disabled workers.
While British companies have got better at hiring more
diverse workforces to include people with disabilities, there is
a risk of that taking a backseat during the crisis, she said.
"Traditionally employers will look for non-disabled staff
before they will look for disabled staff because they perceive
them to be higher risk or more expensive, which is not the
case," she said.
'ONLY REASON TO LEAVE HOME'
People with disabilities are also more worried than others
about the effect of COVID-19 on their health, well-being and
access to essential goods and health care, a recent survey by
Britain's Office For National Statistics (ONS) showed.
About 13.7 million of Britain's 65 million people have
disabilities, according to ONS statistics.
As a social enterprise, Bull said BBMC felt a greater
responsibility to support workers worried about their health and
keeping their jobs.
"Some (of the workers) have quite limited lives out of work
and it's the only reason why some of them leave the house," she
said.
While work nearly dried up at one stage, its factories kept
operating with a skeleton staff during the lockdown and the
company is now welcoming back more employees each week. About
one third of its 107 staff are currently furloughed.
Before the virus, skills shortages in areas such as social
care, hospitality and retail meant many employers were hiring,
giving Evenbreak's 24,000 active candidates an advantage.
But as the crisis causes recruitment freezes and higher
unemployment, job adverts on Evenbreak have fallen from about
2,000 a month to 500 or 600, though clients have said they hope
to start recruiting again.
Campaigners also fear disabled workers could become less
visible as a result of the crisis.
Thailand's Steps with Theera runs training centres and
coffee shops in Bangkok and Phuket for young adults, many of
whom have special educational needs.
Much of its work has had to shift online during the crisis,
but remote learning and education has been challenging or
impossible for some, said founder Max Simpson.
"In addition, the mental health of many of our trainees has
been impacted. All of our graduates lost their jobs in the first
cuts and it is unclear if they will return," he said.
"We believe seeing people with learning differences living
and working successfully is the key to changing attitudes. If we
can't do that anymore, it's going to be challenging."
WORKING FROM HOME
Some positives could come from the sweeping changes wrought
by the pandemic on working life, however.
All of Evenbreak's 12 staff, including Hatton, have
disabilities and work from home, which has become commonplace
due to lockdown curbs and could benefit workers who require
greater flexibility.
Hatton said she was optimistic that the goodwill the crisis
has created - from neighbours helping each other to greater
respect for low-paid essential workers like supermarket staff -
might lead to lasting social change.
"I'm hoping we're going to get a better sense of ethics and
valuing employees and looking after employees," she said.
While some manufacturing businesses might switch to machines
to make certain processes more efficient with social distancing,
Bull said that would clash with BBMC's mission to create jobs.
"What we always seek to do is not take people out of the
manufacturing process, but to say how do we put them in and make
it profitable at the other end," she said.
"One of our biggest assets is our people."
(Reporting by Sarah Shearman @Shearmans. Editing by Helen
Popper. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the
charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of
people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly.
Visit http://news.trust.org)