DISABLED employees of Glasgow City Council urgently need more support and encouragement to register their disability with the local authority.

During a committee meeting this week Labour councillor Robert Mooney raised concerns that only 2.5% of the council’s workforce had listed their disability and that he believed the figure was higher.

Mr Mooney said more assistance was needed to encourage people in this position to come forward and be honest with their employer.

He said: “I know as a whole, about 2.5% of the whole workforce, are people with disabilities but I am not convinced that figure is correct. It is probably higher than that because of the reluctance of people with disabilities identifying themselves.

“What can we do about that to increase the number of people within the council who are willing to self-identify? I know there are a number of reasons why people won’t – they are worried about it affecting their promotion or career.”

A document presented to councillors confirms that the council will work to improve the experience of disabled people as well other minority groups working for the council between 2021 and 2025.

The local authority days it will continue to break down barriers to try and change workplace cultures.

A council officer said: “We do ask employees to update their information regularly because some people might not have been asked to disclose the information.

“I hope that celebrating the diversity in the council workforce will help break down barriers and encourage people to come forward and tell their workforce and employer that they are disabled.

“We have also made the commitment to introduce the disability cross party working group. We are working very closely with our disabled and employee support network to try and get a good group of people who can inform and drive that change.

“When people start to see those changes happen, they should become more confident to provide that information.”