Barriers to the employment of disabled persons

One of the key objectives of the National Cohesion Strategy is to increase the proportion of working age Polish people in active employment. This would be particularly desirable in the case of disabled people. Research results indicate, meanwhile, that the employment of disabled persons in Poland is hindered by a variety of factors, such as the growing cost of employing a disabled person and economical passivity among those who are unemployed.

Labour market participation

A report by the Polish Central Statistical Office (Główny Urząd Statystyczny, GUS), entitled Current situation of disabled people in the labour market on the basis of BAEL results, registered unemployment, and other statistical data, revealed that the number of disabled persons of legal working age in Poland approached 2.25 million at the end of 2008. Of this group, almost 560,000 people were economically active, with some 486,000 persons in active employment and 66,000 persons currently registered as unemployed; the remaining 1.69 million were economically inactive.

According to GUS, disabled persons face a much harder situation in the labour market than persons without disabilities. At the end of 2008, only 24.9% of disabled Polish people of working age were economically active and only 21.6% were actually employed. Among persons without disabilities, meanwhile, the economic activity index stood at 75.2%, the employment index at 70.3% and the unemployment index at 6.5%. Regarding disabled persons and comparing their situation in the labour market with the same period in the preceding year, their economic activity index increased by 1.2 percentage points and their employment index by 1.1 percentage points, while their unemployment index fell by 0.2 percentage points.

Educational level

Furthermore, statistical data indicate that disabled persons tend to be educated to a lower degree. As of late 2008, 34.5% of disabled persons of working age were educated to secondary level or above, compared with almost 60% of people without disabilities. Just over 5% of disabled persons held university degrees, compared with almost 20% of people without disabilities. Basic vocational education had been completed by 37.9% of disabled persons of working age, compared with 29% of people without disabilities. Therefore, for many people with disabilities, employment problems occur due to their disabilities as well as poor education.

Some positive development

Research devoted to the situation of disabled people in the labour market indicates some positive change over the past few years. However, it also proves that most barriers to success in the workplace for this group remain unchanged. This article is drawn on the studies conducted in Poland by the International Labour Organization (ILO) – for example, the 2005 survey among disabled persons on how they perceive themselves in the labour market – and the Poviat Labour Office in Gdańsk (Powiatowy Urząd Pracy w Gdańsku, PUP Gdańsk) 2008 survey on the problem of economic inactivity among unemployed disabled people.

Positive changes in the labour market regarding recruitment of disabled workers include:

• greater awareness among employers with regard to people with disabilities and their problems;

• a better image of disabled workers as prospective employees.

Barriers to employment, however, arise both on the part of employers as well as disabled people themselves.

Barriers on the part of employers

One of the gravest impediments to hiring disabled persons is the high payroll costs, especially in the open labour market – this differs from protected labour entities, which benefit from a number of tax breaks in recognition of the fact that they employ a certain percentage of disabled persons. Given the high outlays involved, the prevailing view that disabled employees are inherently less productive, and the perspective (whether justified or not) of frequent absences from work on health grounds, employers in the general labour market are loath to hire disabled workers. Accordingly, only 20% of disabled Poles who are currently employed have succeeded in obtaining employment in the open labour market; the remainder work at protected labour entities.

Early December 2008 brought amendments to the legislative Act regarding vocational and social rehabilitation of disabled persons. One of the changes reduced the reimbursement for hiring a disabled employee from 100% of the cost of adaptation and maintenance of the workplace to 75%. Consequently, some employers decided to forfeit their status of protected labour entities rather than shoulder the increased cost of keeping on disabled workers; as a result, many disabled employees lost their jobs.

Disabled employees recently made redundant may face considerable difficulty in their job search. According to disabled persons themselves, potential employers tend to view them as inefficient and believe that hiring a disabled worker is fraught with inconvenience and risk. People with disabilities believe that employers are convinced that a disabled person could not manage to perform the tasks conveyed to them. In addition, employers are afraid that a person with a disability would frequently take time off to seek medical attention. The survey carried out by PUP Gdańsk reveals longer periods of leave as a particular nuisance to employers.

Other impediments to the recruitment of disabled workers, mentioned in the 2008 survey, include:

• a shortage of work stations adapted to the needs of disabled persons;

• impeded access to rehabilitation services;

• architectural barriers;

• difficulty in commuting to the workplace.

People with disabilities believe that sometimes their fellow workers without disabilities express discontent to be working with a disabled person. According to the survey by PUP Gdańsk, this type of reaction was reported by 13% of disabled employees.

Barriers on the part of disabled persons

Barriers to employment created by disabled persons themselves are mostly connected with their labour market inactivity. The study shows that 88.6% of economically inactive disabled persons of working age cite their illness or disability as the reason why they do not look for jobs. Other reasons include pensioner status (6.2%), remaining in education and further education (1.5%), and family and household duties (1.7%).

According to the research conducted by ILO, some disabled persons – particularly those who have only recently become disabled – prefer to continue in the type of work that they performed before becoming disabled. Plans of disabled workers to return to the job held before suffering a disability are symbolically associated with a desire to reclaim their status and their normal role in society. The reality in the job market, however, is that the offers of employment for disabled persons are often associated with more simple, low-skilled work.

Commentary

Although interest in the employment of disabled persons and the difficulties they face is increasing, it would appear that their situation in the labour market has not changed – certainly not for the better. This is due not only to legislative changes and to employers’ attitudes, but also to the economic crisis. No improvement in their situation seems imminent and, for the moment, it remains unclear how such an improvement might be achieved.

Rafał Towalski, Institute of Public Affairs (ISP)