Miss-Delectable
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http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/content/yarmouthmercury/news/story.aspx?brand=GYMOnline&category=news&tBrand=GYMonline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED26%20Jul%202007%2015%3A38%3A14%3A810
JOBCENTRE staff in Great Yarmouth could have discriminated against a deaf woman by refusing to make a phone call for a job application, according to the Disability Rights Commission (DRC).
Rosa Pereira, 51, who currently works for Care UK, visited the Jobcentre last week to apply for two positions with Norfolk County Council, one as a care assistant at Holt Day Services, the other as a behaviour and learning support assistant at West Earlham Middle School.
But the mother-of-one said staff told her that because she was employed they could not make the call on her behalf and she would need a personal adviser to do the job for her, even though they had made the call for her to get her current job when she was unemployed. She is now considering taking legal action against Jobcentre Plus.
DRC spokesman Nicola Pazdzierska said under the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995 , employees at Jobcentre Plus, in The Conge, were expected to provide the same standard of service to disabled people as everybody else, and should have made the call for Portuguese national Ms Pereira who cannot use the telephone because of her disability.
She advised Ms Pereira, of Nelson Road, Yarmouth, to contact the county court about the possibility of taking legal action.
“It is a potential breach of the law and most worryingly it could act as a deterrent for disabled people looking for work,” she added.
She said the Act required businesses to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, which could mean installing Braille text and providing easy access for the disabled, but jobcentres across the country, and not just Yarmouth, were failing to meet this legal requirement.
Ms Pereira said: “I think they discriminate against people who are employed because only the unemployed have the chance to have the call made for them.”
She suffers from a neurosensorial disorder which started to appear in 1999 and means she has to use a textphone, which is similar to a normal phone but has a calculator-style keypad for sending text messages.
Natalie Jones, a spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions, admitted staff had made a mistake but denied they had discriminated against her.
She said the centre did not have textphones, although some of the phones could be used with hearing aids and employees had been reminded of their responsibilities to provide the same standard of service for the disabled.
When Ms Pereira visited the centre, a number of staff had gone to lunch and there was nobody available to make the call. The employee who dealt with her had not followed the correct procedure and arranged a future appointment with a disability employment adviser.
“We are going to get all the staff together to go through their responsibilities and make sure they are aware that if a customer comes in and needs help then they should be helped. We apologise to the customer for any inconvenience caused.”
If Jobcentre Plus is convicted of breaching the Disability Descrimination Act it could have to pay Ms Pereira £5,000 compensation.
JOBCENTRE staff in Great Yarmouth could have discriminated against a deaf woman by refusing to make a phone call for a job application, according to the Disability Rights Commission (DRC).
Rosa Pereira, 51, who currently works for Care UK, visited the Jobcentre last week to apply for two positions with Norfolk County Council, one as a care assistant at Holt Day Services, the other as a behaviour and learning support assistant at West Earlham Middle School.
But the mother-of-one said staff told her that because she was employed they could not make the call on her behalf and she would need a personal adviser to do the job for her, even though they had made the call for her to get her current job when she was unemployed. She is now considering taking legal action against Jobcentre Plus.
DRC spokesman Nicola Pazdzierska said under the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995 , employees at Jobcentre Plus, in The Conge, were expected to provide the same standard of service to disabled people as everybody else, and should have made the call for Portuguese national Ms Pereira who cannot use the telephone because of her disability.
She advised Ms Pereira, of Nelson Road, Yarmouth, to contact the county court about the possibility of taking legal action.
“It is a potential breach of the law and most worryingly it could act as a deterrent for disabled people looking for work,” she added.
She said the Act required businesses to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, which could mean installing Braille text and providing easy access for the disabled, but jobcentres across the country, and not just Yarmouth, were failing to meet this legal requirement.
Ms Pereira said: “I think they discriminate against people who are employed because only the unemployed have the chance to have the call made for them.”
She suffers from a neurosensorial disorder which started to appear in 1999 and means she has to use a textphone, which is similar to a normal phone but has a calculator-style keypad for sending text messages.
Natalie Jones, a spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions, admitted staff had made a mistake but denied they had discriminated against her.
She said the centre did not have textphones, although some of the phones could be used with hearing aids and employees had been reminded of their responsibilities to provide the same standard of service for the disabled.
When Ms Pereira visited the centre, a number of staff had gone to lunch and there was nobody available to make the call. The employee who dealt with her had not followed the correct procedure and arranged a future appointment with a disability employment adviser.
“We are going to get all the staff together to go through their responsibilities and make sure they are aware that if a customer comes in and needs help then they should be helped. We apologise to the customer for any inconvenience caused.”
If Jobcentre Plus is convicted of breaching the Disability Descrimination Act it could have to pay Ms Pereira £5,000 compensation.