Guidelines on ‘reasonable adjustments’
If you are aware of an employee’s disability, legally you must provide what is regarded 'reasonable adjustment' to accommodate the needs of your employee.
Reasonable adjustments let an employee with disability safely perform the essential requirements of their job. Reasonable adjustments include changes to premises, facilities, equipment, work practices or training that could help a person with disability do a job.
If an adjustment could be effective, you are obliged to make the adjustment, unless you can prove that the adjustment would cause unjustifiable hardship. Unjustifiable hardship is more than an inconvenience or a relatively minor expense. It may relate to severe financial hardship, technical limitations or heritage considerations. For more information on unjustifiable hardship, visit the Australian Human Rights Commission website.
Reasonable adjustments also require that an employee with disability has equal employment opportunities such as recruitment processes, promotion and training opportunities as well as equal terms and conditions of employment.
If reasonable adjustments are required to help an employee with disability can do his or her job, your costs may be covered by the Employment Assistance Fund.
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