Assessing labour market access for people with disabilities

On 3 December 2007, which is Greece’s National Day of People with Disabilities, the National Confederation of People with Disabilities submitted its annual report to parliament. The report examines the issue of disabled people’s access to working life. Some 84% of this group are outside the labour market. The existing quota system for recruitment of people in vulnerable social groups is inadequate to cater for those with disabilities.

The National Confederation of People with Disabilities (Εθνική Συνομοσπονδία Ατόμων με Αναπηρία, ESAEA) is considered a social partner of the state and participates in public debates and official consultations on all relevant issues. On the occasion of the National Day of People with Disabilities – 3 December 2007 – ESAEA delivered to parliament its annual report Labour market access for people with disabilities (in Greek, 478Kb PDF), which focuses on the subject of access for people with disabilities to working life.

High unemployment rate of disabled people

A survey by the National Statistical Service of Greece (Εθνική Στατιστική Υπηρεσία Ελλάδος, ESYE) indicates that about 84% of people with disabilities are outside the labour market. A 2005 survey of 1,386 persons with disabilities found that:

• 48.2% of them believe that promotion of the right to employment of disabled people is not at all satisfactory, 30.8% consider it to be somewhat satisfactory, and only 5.6% believe it to be very satisfactory;

• 80% of unemployed people with disabilities consider themselves to be long-term unemployed.

Statutory framework

Law 2643/1998 on employment of persons in special categories and other provisions establishes a quota system for recruitment in the public and private sectors of people in vulnerable social groups, such as heads of large families, people with disabilities and those with injuries sustained in war-time. The Labour Force Employment Organisation (Οργανισμός Απασχόλησης Εργατικού Δυναμικού, OAED) is responsible for the selection and placement of people from these groups in the organisations concerned. Placements are essentially obligatory for the employer.

ESAEA identifies the following basic weaknesses in the Greek quota system.

• The system includes social groups that do not have the same characteristics and the same needs. Thus, the obligatory 5% quota applying to jobs in the public sector and the obligatory 8% quota applying to jobs in the private sector are distributed among all of the categories that the law protects, and not only people with disabilities.

• The enterprises covered by obligatory quotas in most EU countries include those that employ fewer than 50 people, whereas in Greece only those enterprises employing over 50 people are covered.

• The EU Council Directive 2000/78/EC establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of disability, was transposed word for word into Greek legislation by Law 3304/2005. The law filled a gap in Greek legislation, since previously no regulations gave rise to actionable claims of disability discrimination and this void had been bridged by resorting to constitutional regulations and provisions of international texts that were not always legally binding. However, the law did not incorporate Directive 2000/78/EC in a manner that would extend the principle of equal treatment for people with disabilities to all areas of life, as was done in the case of Belgium, but limited itself to combating the discrimination suffered by people with disabilities in the area of employment and work.

Proposals for a job placement strategy

To boost the employment of people with disabilities, ESAEA’s proposals include the following:

• creation of a broad spectrum of alternative forms of employment for people with disabilities, such as part-time work, protected employment, supported employment and telework;

• extension of the principle of equal treatment to all aspects of the social life of people with disabilities, as provided for by Law 3304/2005 regarding people who are discriminated against on the basis of racial or ethnic origin;

• an increase in the obligatory recruitment quota, with a simultaneous provision of incentives for enterprises employing people with disabilities, such as lower company taxes in proportion to the number of people with disabilities they hire or subsidisation of part of the cost of insuring employees with disabilities;

• linking the system of obligatory placements with education, training and lifelong learning programmes, taking into account the lack of homogeneity of this population group, along with the needs of the enterprises concerned;

• granting of state disability allowances even when the person with a disability works or runs a business.

Commentary

The successsful integration of people with disabilities in the labour market can be achieved only by means of a unified approach to areas such as education, training, lifelong learning, the information society, social security, services and transport. For any policy to integrate people with disabilities in the labour market to be effective, it must combine broad legislation to combat discrimination with structural interventions in all areas of life.

Sofia Lampousaki, Labour Institute of Greek General Confederation of Labour/Confederation of Public Servants (INE/GSEE-ADEDY)