Chronic illness: Are employers offering reasonable accommodation?

When Covid-19 struck and lockdowns were put in place many people – typically those with office-based roles – were suddenly able to work from home. Until that point, employees seeking remote working as a “reasonable accommodation” – for example, those living with a chronic illness – had often been refused on the basis that it was “not possible”, leading to understandable frustration. So, since remote or hybrid working became normal for office workers, are companies providing reasonable accommodations for those with long-term health conditions?

What is reasonable?

Reasonable accommodation is any modification to a job or work environment that is needed to enable a person with a disability to apply for, perform or advance in a job, or to undertake training, says Tina Weber, research manager at Dublin-based EU agency the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).

“Reasonable accommodation is aimed at any employee with a disability. The right to reasonable accommodation extends to all work-related activities covered by EU law, from the job application process through to termination. It also extends to working conditions and fringe benefits.

“The main types of reasonable accommodation include technical solutions, working arrangements, training measures and awareness raising measures.”

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Rates of reasonable requests

The number of workers requiring reasonable accommodation is unclear, says Weber.

“The only comparable data available relates to employment rates of persons with a disability and able-bodied persons and the share of the population and the workforce living with a chronic illness. National definitions differ as to whether a chronic illness falls under the protection of the employment equality directive,” she adds.

“EU data show that there is an employment gap of around 25 per cent between persons with a disability and their able-bodied counterparts across the EU. In Ireland, this figure is significantly higher, at around 42 per cent – the highest in the EU.”

In 2019, the latest year for which information is available, close to a third of the EU population aged between 16 and 64 stated they lived with a chronic illness, Weber says.

“Among employed persons, excluding self-employed, this figure was 27.1 per cent. This share has been gradually increasing and will be higher as statutory retirement ages increase across the EU,” she adds. “However, there are large variations between EU countries, with the figure for Ireland standing at 15.7 per cent in the same year.”

Chronic disease limitations

Data from Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) of 2017 show that 8.7 per cent of those with a chronic disease declared they were severely limited by their condition, 44.6 per cent indicated they were somewhat limited, and 46.8 per cent considered themselves not to be limited at all.

“This means a total of 53.3 per cent of individuals with a chronic disease are limited in their daily activities due to their condition,” says Weber. “Workers over 55 are most likely to report having such a life-limiting condition.”

Part-time working

Among the most common forms of workplace adaptation are working-time flexibility and flexibility in working arrangements, usually in the form of reduced working hours (part-time work) or the ability to adapt working hours within certain limits.

“From the available data it is not possible to assess the extent to which part-time working is a specifically agreed form of adaptation or indeed the result of ‘self-selection’, with workers with limiting conditions deciding from the outset that they are unable to work full-time hours,” says Weber.

“Furthermore, it is important to note that no specific data are available from the EWCS on material adaptations and further research would therefore be needed to verify this assessment of the most common forms of workplace adaptations.”

Invisible illnesses

Many disabilities and chronic illnesses present as “invisible”, and can require specific accommodations.

“Invisible disabilities include neurodiversity, including ADHD, and mental health conditions such as depression but can also include physical disorders such as chronic pain and diabetes among others,” says Weber.

“Accommodations will depend on the precise nature of the condition but in relation to neurodiversity, for example, can include allowing for reasonable breaks, providing workspaces free of distractions, allowing for teleworking where desired and more.”