Employee rights for young people with disability, autism or other additional needs
Like all employees, your child with disability, autism or other additional needs has protected rights at work. These protected rights include being free from discrimination at work.
To find out about your child’s rights at work, go to Fair Work Ombudsman – Protection from discrimination at work.
Telling employers about disability, autism or other additional needs
Your child can choose whether to tell employers about their additional needs. There are a few things for your child to think about as they decide what to do.
Your child might need to think about their personal strengths and their support needs. Your child might consider whether they could do the job well without support or whether some support would help them do it better.
Another thing to think about is the organisation’s reputation for hiring, supporting and including employees with disability, autism or other additional needs.
Your child could use this information to draw up a list of the pros and cons of telling an employer about their additional needs. For example:
- Pros might include additional support or adjustments so your child can do the job well. They might also include improved understanding from colleagues of how your child might behave or perform at work.
- Cons might include the risk that employers or colleagues will make negative assumptions about your child’s abilities. Or your child might not feel comfortable sharing personal information.
Whatever your child decides, they have no legal obligation to tell potential employers about their additional needs. And employers don’t have the right to ask or know. It’s about deciding what’s going to be best for your child in the workplace.
Entitlements to reasonable adjustments for disability, autism or other additional needs
Your child is entitled to reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process, tasks, hours, equipment and environment to ensure they get the understanding and support they need to be successful at work. If your child tells their employer about their additional needs, they’ll be able to ask for these adjustments.
Examples of common adjustments include:
- disability awareness training for managers and key colleagues
- a buddy or mentor for additional support
- flexible working arrangements like the option to work from home, earlier or later starts and finishes to the working day, or reduced work hours
- assistive technology like speech to text software, screen readers or digital recorders
- communication options to help your child learn new tasks, processes and information – this might include written, visual, verbal and practical forms of communication
- adjustments to the physical environment like changing the lighting, modifying the desk, providing a quiet place, or allowing noise-cancelling headphones
- support with setting up schedules and routines, checklists or to-do lists
- help with breaking down large projects into smaller tasks.
National Disability Insurance Scheme and employment
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funds reasonable and necessary supports to help people with disability reach goals throughout life, including employment goals.
Types of employment supports that the NDIS might fund include:
- personal care at work, like assistance with meals
- aids and equipment, like wheelchairs
- transition-to-work supports that employers can’t reasonably provide, like transport or training relating to travel to and from work
- individual employment support for people who probably won’t be eligible for Disability Employment Services (DES)
- supports for people with disability to work when they’re otherwise unlikely to find ongoing work.
The NDIS also might also fund:
- on-the-job support in the workplace
- employment-related assessment and counselling
- individual and group employment support
- job-specific skill development
- support for employment-related skill development, like social and behaviour skills
- School Leavers Employment Supports (SLES).