Commenting on the passing of motion 20 at Annual Conference in Harrogate, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"We need to recruit and retain disabled workers in the education sector. Yet for far too many, punitive policies are driving them out. Every workplace should have a disability leave policy alongside a sickness absence policy so that education workers are not penalised for being Disabled.
"With the proposed benefit cuts to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Universal Credit alongside uncertainty about Access to Work provision, many Disabled educators are rightly feeling worried about being able to remain in work and doing the jobs they are committed to.
"The government needs to listen to workers and change their planned benefit cuts, or the recruitment and retention crisis we have in education will only get worse. Committed professionals will be driven from, not into, work."