Published on 12, July, 2020
In May last year the TUC launched its guide to employment of people on the autistic spectrum. It was written for them by Janine Booth who runs autism in the workplace training events for the Workers' Educational association.
This is a different route into the problem from the mainly NAS led approach, the trades union perspective. It is directed at trade union officers who come across autism issues in the workplace, and therefore might potentially have a strong influence on how peple at work treat autistic spectrum colleagues.
It starts off by establishing a Social Model of Disability perspective (my pet hate from an educational point of view - I don't think this works for autism). The social model looks at barriers in the work environment which clash with autistic impairment. All you have to do it seems is make some environmental and material adjustments and then people on the autistic spectrum will have the same chances as everyone else. Simples.....
It then explains the Triad of Impairment. There's a long section with lots of examples of thinking literally. On executive function - this is the set of abilities that enable people to translate motivation into action. START doing someting, CHANGE what you are doing, STOP doing something once started, and Managing Time. Then Motor Function, Sensory Sensitivity, Sensory Overload, two-line description each. This leads to distress, meltdowns sometimes, and stimming.
Then the usual platitudes debunking the mythology - behaviour is a product of distress, difference not disability, apparently 60-70 percent of people on the autistic spectrum have a learning disability, many people with autism do not want to be cured. - you know all this stuff.
The great mystery is the lack of references - what is all this based on? All they provide are 6 websites - the all party paliamentary group, autism europe, the autism hub, autistic uk, DANDA and NAS. An autism timeline in an appendix reaches 2013 without mentioning the Autism Act or Leading Rewarding and Fulfilling Lives... The last UK contribution was the formation of the All Party Parliamentary Group in 2000.
In other words - lets not bother doing this properly - lets just package together a lot of opinionated rubbish and that's good enough for the TUC.
To the TUC: - "Most Autistic people can work, including in normal (whatever that may mean) workplaces"
"People with autism have various means of communication - some are more verbal than others"
They list a lot of reasons why workplaces create difficulties for autistic workers: discrimination, bullying, lack of communication and support, preventing an autistic person carrying out duties or using equipment when there is no valid reason to do so. Also lower pay, imposition of new arrangements at work, working conditions in the past, autistic workers are more likely to have periods without work, decreased self confidence, work environments, bossy managers, disruption of routines, contracting out, and latterly "expecting people to abide by social rules without ever specifying what they are", "making judgements about a worker's social interaction" " issues with assessment and/or pronotional processes".
Now those last three I'd say were priority ones. Most of the preceding material is standard TUC issues, discussed at length. When we get down to these three, we are on unexplained one-liners. They are followed by more and repetitive one-liners. They are just adding on things they've read somewhere but dont understand. Right at the bottom of this long list comes "sensory issues, eg noise, light, smell".
There follows a section on workers with autistic dependents. It is again standard trade union stuff.
What they propose is, even without knowing staff might have autism, make the work-place more autism friendly. Provide a relaxation space, changes to working practices to be negoiated with the union, occupational health and managemnent training about autism, time off for trade union representatives to attend training, all instructions and policies to be written clearly, anti-harrassment, time off.
That's the solution apparently - social model, remove the "barriers" and it will all be hunky dorey. There's some standard stuff about politically correct language and hate crime. Then some stuff about the impact of auterity and autism in parliament, which ends with APPG in 2000. Nothing about the Autism Act. However the Autism Act is mentioned under a section on the law.
My problem with this document is there is no real undderstanding of autism. There's no sign of any effort to understand autism. Just the usual social model tripe - make a few wee anticipatory adjustments - nothing to autism really.
The whole document is a disgrace. I'm not anti-union. I was in a union most of my life and even for a while a rep. But this document is a sham. The TUC should be thoroyughly ashamed. They've not taken autism seriously, merely adapted autism to a general moan about workplace conditions for all employees, which is not fair.
My concern about the TUC guide to autism in the workplace is that they don't define the barriers (and probably don't know what these are). So their suggestions for anticipatory measures don't address real barriers.
However I don't think enough is known generally about these barriers. I can suggest possibles from my limited perspective, but what is needed is a study of workplace barriers across a range of occupations, for people on the spectrum.
If the Government/DWP genuinely wants to help people with autism into work, funding such research ought to be a priority. It might also drive further development of digital aids.
OK, we are likely to find that the barriers are not easily addressed by the social model, but even where people on the spectrum have to meet half way by making their own adjustments (medical model), we need guidelines.
All the TUC did was describe the Triad of Impairments (rather naively in four pages) then suggest some things they thought might be problems in the work place, and offered some anticipatory measures such as relaxation places as their interpretation of quiet rooms.
But if the TUC won't do it, surely some other organisation could do the job properly.
What is needed is to look at a range of jobs. Sometimes this will involve people at the "milder" end contributing (the unthinkable - including able aspies!). We need to build up an understanding of what the barriers are, before we decide to what extent they can be removed or alleviated thriough the social model, and to what extent individuals on the spectrum have to work out ways to bridge the resulting gaps.
The TUC's barriers. I've given below the barriers the TUC identified (missing out the examples, which rather missed the point in any case). It reads like one of those flip chart lists from a discussion forum.
Maybe others can suggest things they should have included, or placed higher up the list, or grouped into netter sub-headings.
"Discrimination: treating the autistic worker differently from, less favourably than, others
"Bullying by management, including ridicule and physical/verbal abuse
"Lack of communication and support
"Preventing an autistic worker from carrying out duties or using equipment when there is no valid reason for doing so
"Rates of Pay: an employer might pay a worker less than the rate for the job, using the autism as a pretext or excuse
"Exploitation: an employer may think that s/he can 'get away with' treating an autistic employee badly
"New work processes: the imposition of new arrangements at work may cause difficulties for workers on the autistic spectrum
"Past experiences: working conditions in the past may have caused difficulties for the worker; perhaps when the law was different
"Unemployment: autistic workers are more likely to have periods of unemployment, often due to losing or leaving a job because conditions are unsuitable
"Self confidence may be decreased by experiences of discrimination or bullying
"Performance management regimes may cause undue pressure and stress to autuistic workers
"Working environment: Autistic workers may need a 'benign' environment with fewer distressing factors
"Managers being overly 'bossy' can distress autistic (and other) workers
"Disruption of routines
"A worker with undiagnosed autism may not get support or adjustments
"Contracting-out enables third-party companies to insist that workers are removed, even sacked, just because they don't like the worker concerned
"Expecting people to abide by 'social rules' at work without ever specifying what they are
"Problems with assessment and/or promotion processes
"Making judgements about a worker's social interactions based on neurotypical standards, e.g. not hiring someone because s/he did not make eye contact during an interview, assuming s/he was disinterested or dishonest
"stress or anxiety
"Colleagues or managers misunderstanding you
"Feeling 'left out' socially
"Conflict with colleagues or managers
"Misunderstanding rules, policies or instructions
"Difficulties organising your work
"Feeling that autistic positives/skilkls are not recognised
"Frustration with others' poor organisation of work
"Timekeeping (either yours or others')
"Unexpected events or disruption of work schedule
"Irregular working hours
"Sickness/absence policies
"Dealing with diagniosis as an adult
"Sensory issues, eg light, noise and smell"