Irish employers are set to face higher bills to adapt working places for the disabled, following the Government's acceptance of a European Union employment discrimination law.
Under the changes, due to come into force in December 2003, businesses will have to make "reasonable accommodations" for disabled workers unless they can prove they amount to a "disproportionate burden".
In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that equality legislation pioneered by the then Labour minister for equality and law reform, Mr Mervyn Taylor, was unconstitutional because it imposed significant costs on employers.
Such a demand on employers was "an unjust attack" on their property rights, the court decided, even though it believed Mr Taylor's intentions were "laudable".
In the wake of the ruling, the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat government redrafted Mr Taylor's legislation, although this offered weaker rights to disabled workers.
The Employment Equality Act in 1998 outlawed discrimination on nine grounds: gender, family status, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, race and membership of the Traveller community.
Faced with the Supreme Court decision, the Act, however, demands that employers can be forced to pay only "nominal costs" to ensure disabled people can work in their companies.
However, the legislation did not define a nominal cost. Since then, the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations has on a number of occasions attempted to tease out the issue.
In one case, a local authority employee suffering from the effects of neurosurgery was awarded €15,000 compensation because the Director decided he would have been able to do his job had he been given extra training.
In another case, a wheelchair user successfully claimed he was discriminated against after he could not attend a job interview on the first floor of a health board building because the stairlift was not working.
In November 2000, the European Union's 15 member-states agreed a general framework directive to ban all forms of job discrimination based on religion, belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation. On disability, it reads: "In order to guarantee compliance with the principle of equal treatment in relation to persons with disabilities, reasonable accommodation shall be provided.
"This means that employers shall take appropriate measures, where needed in a particular case, to enable a person with a disability to have access to, participate in, or advance in employment, or to undergo training, unless such measures would impose a disproportionate burden on the employer."
Member-states are required to introduce all necessary laws and regulations by December 2003 but the introduction of the tougher equality rules could have been delayed for a further three years.
However, the Department of Justice and Law Reform has decided to implement the disability section immediately from December 2003, although a decision about strengthening age discrimination rules has not yet been made.
Welcoming the decision, the Equality Authority's chief executive, Mr Niall Crowley, said: "It should enhance the move towards more accessible working places. I think it is positive that they are not seeking extra time."
