The ill-treatment of employees with disabilities in British workplaces

Ralph Fevre, Amanda Robinson, Duncan Lewis and Trevor Jones
Additional contact information
Ralph Fevre: Cardiff University, UK
Amanda Robinson: Cardiff University, UK
Duncan Lewis: Plymouth University, UK
Trevor Jones: Cardiff University, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2013, vol. 27, issue 2, 288-307

Abstract: There are few quantitative studies that show the workplace is experienced in a different way by employees with disabilities. This article fills this gap using data from the British Workplace Behaviour Survey, which found that employees with disabilities and long-term illnesses were more likely to suffer ill-treatment in the workplace and experienced a broader range of ill-treatment. Different types of disability were associated with different types of ill-treatment. The survey also showed who employees with disabilities blamed for their ill-treatment and why they believed the ill-treatment had occurred. Drawing on the existing literature, four possible explanations for ill-treatment are considered: negative affect raises perceptions of ill-treatment; ill-treatment leads to health effects; ill-treatment results from stigma or discrimination; ill-treatment is a consequence of workplace social relations. Although some of these explanations are stronger than others, the discussion shows that more research is required in order to decide between them.

Keywords: bullying; disability; discrimination; harassment; health; incivility; stigma; well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://wes.sagepub.com/content/27/2/288.abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:27:y:2013:i:2:p:288-307

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Work, Employment & Society from British Sociological Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().