Marjolein Dennissen

109 Diversity killjoys? In order to counter inequality and exclusion of disabled and chronically ill employees, the disability network specifically attempts to influence and change organizational HR policies that contribute to more knowledge and guidelines on how to deal with disabled or chronically ill employees and their disability or illness. One of the key points that the disability network focuses on, is the pay cuts that disabled and chronically ill employees get when their sick leave lasts longer than six months. According to the network, there used to be a gentlemen’s agreement : a policy document that mentioned that in case of dire circumstances the pay cuts would not apply. The network members have noticed that there is no awareness of this agreement at the managerial level of the organization, and, as a consequence, the agreement is not respected. The disability network is therefore pursuing its reinstatement through actively engaging in negotiations with the HR department, who are in charge of the implementation and possible adaption of personnel policies. In an interview, network member Jim tells about the current status of these negotiations: “At the moment, the HR department wants to specify ‘what is a dire case?’, to be given in decimal places or so to speak. And terminally ill, for example. And what they [HR] want is: is that one month, two months or three months? Well, I forcefully react on that by saying, that is just bullshit! Terminally ill is terminally ill, and a dire case is for the particular manager to decide and not for the HR department. […] Our call was taken up by the HR department. Next month we have a meeting with the person in charge, and eh.. he was also present at [our recent network event], he heard and saw a couple of dire cases, and yeah, they understand that they cannot make no bones about that, that they have to do something with that. But we have to allow them some time to organize this properly, and we talk about this with each other [disability network and HR]. So our examples serve as addition to a part of [their] organization and our examples can also serve to tell the organization, ‘you really have to change this’.” [ Jim, member of disability network, Govt] This account demonstrates how the members of the disability network are checking the organization on the development and implementation of policies related to disabilities and chronical illnesses. From the beginning of setting up the disability network, the network members have explicitly invested in building a good relationship with HR by providing them with (solicited and unsolicited) advice about disabilities and chronically ill employees, and by actively involving them in network events. Having established this kind of networking relationship with HR, the disability network gained a position as negotiation partner which allows them to engage in discussions about organizational policies regarding disabilities and chronical illnesses. During the network event that Jim is referring to, I observe that the HR director has taken up the call of the disability network to implement policies that address management of disabled and chronically ill employees: