Premium
Negotiating ‘Difference’: Representing Disabled Employees in the British Workplace
Author(s) -
Foster Deborah,
Fosh Patricia
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
british journal of industrial relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.665
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-8543
pISSN - 0007-1080
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2009.00748.x
Subject(s) - negotiation , representation (politics) , collective bargaining , politics , trade union , public relations , industrial relations , political science , sociology , labour economics , law , economics
Drawing on qualitative interviews with disabled employees, union officers and disability‐related organizations, this article examines employee attempts to negotiate workplace adjustments and associated issues of workplace representation. UK employment law utilizes an individual medical model of disability, which conflicts with traditional collective approaches favoured by trade unions, which has implications for disabled employees and union representation. We explore the different strategies available to unions and conclude that, despite the role played by disability‐related organizations in supporting employees, unions are the only workplace actors who are capable of reconfiguring the ‘personal as political’ and integrating disability concerns into wider organizational agendas.