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Support for disabled persons in the workplace

16 May 2012

Romania

The survey ‘Employment of disabled peoples’ was conducted by the National Institute of Statistics (INS [1]) in the second quarter of 2011 as a complementary module to the ‘Household labour force survey’ (/Ancheta asupra forţei de muncă în gospodării,/ AMIGO) [1] http://www.insse.ro/

Article

Employment and labour markets

Working conditions and sustainable work

A survey by Romania’s National Institute of Statistics conducted during the second quarter of 2011 revealed that 30.1% of all disabled persons aged 15–64 who had a job benefited from special services designed to help them do their work. Among these recipients, 74.3% received personal assistance, 9.5% received special equipment or adjustments to regular equipment, and 47.7% said that special working conditions existed or had been created for them at their workplace.

About the survey

The survey ‘Employment of disabled peoples’ was conducted by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) in the second quarter of 2011 as a complementary module to the ‘Household labour force survey’ (Ancheta asupra forţei de muncă în gospodării, AMIGO)

The main purpose of the survey was to obtain information about the number of disabled people who were active on the labour market and their working conditions. Particular attention was paid to:

those with long-term health problems and functional disabilities;
the degree of involvement of disabled people in revenue-generating activities;
the type of restrictions that barred disabled people from having a full professional life;
whether they received special assistance and what form this assistance took.

The survey targeted those aged 15–64 years old who had permanent or temporary residence in Romania and who were members of households selected for the AMIGO enquiry.

The data were collected and recorded during face-to-face interviews at the interviewees’ homes, from a sample of 26,740 households. The figures determined for each of the household members who acted as respondents were then extrapolated to the entire country. The non-response rate was 2.3%.

Key findings

Employees with disabilities

The number of people with disabilities employed in Romania in the second quarter of 2011 was 405,238 (4.6%) out of a total number of 8.77 million employed in the 15–64 years-old age group (Table 1).The survey also found that, among those with disabilities:

more women were employed than men (5.6% compared with 3.8%);
there was a higher rate of employment in rural areas than in urban ones (6.8% compared 3.0%).

Also of interest is the significantly larger share (17.8%) of employed disabled people in the 55–64 age group compared with only 0.8% in the under 35 age group.

**Table 1: Employed persons with disabilities, 2nd quarter 2011**
	Total employment	People with disabilities
	Total employment	Employed	As a share (%) of total employment ¹
Employed persons of whom:	8,777,232	405,238	4.6
By gender
Male	4,847,072	186,429	3.8
Female	3,930,160	218,809	5.6
By type of residential area
Urban	5,081,840	153,082	3.0
Rural	3,695,392	252,156	6.8
By age group
under 35 years	3,143,151	24,563	0.8
35–44 years	2,712,011	67,178	2.5
45–54 years	1,860,109	124,062	6.7
55–64 years	1,061,962	189,435	17.8

Note: ¹Third column divided by second column.

Source: ‘Employment of disabled persons’, 2nd quarter 2011, INS, Bucharest, 2011.

Special assistance at the workplace

The survey found that:

30.1% of disabled workers received special assistance to help them cope with their professional duties in the second quarter 2011.
74.3% of the disabled workers stated they had received assistance of a personal nature;
9.5% of those assisted had received special equipment or had adjustments made to existing equipment;
47.7% stated that they had enjoyed special working conditions at the workplace.

Special working conditions (such as flexible working schedule, teleworking and stationary work) were created for a larger proportion of women (65.3%) than for men (46.7%), for the self-employed (52.3%), and for agricultural workers (49.3%).

The largest share of disabled workers who received special assistance was recorded among unpaid family workers (45.0%), of whom 80.6% received this special assistance in the form of personal assistance, and among agricultural workers (38.6%) (Table 2).

**Table 2: Special assistance given to employees with disabilities**
	Total	Recipients of special assistance (%)	Of whom:
	Total	Recipients of special assistance (%)	Personal assistance (%)	Special working conditions (%)
Total number with disabilities employed, of whom:	405,238	30.1	74.3	47.7
By gender
Male	186,429	30.4	75.3	47.7
Female	218,809	21.8	73.7	65.3
By economic sector
Agriculture	219,073	38.6	74.3	49.3
Industry and construction	83,511	19.4	71.8	41.4
Services	102,654	20.9	76.2	46.0
By employment status
Employees	162,990	20.5	72.3	42.0
Self-employed	150,178	31.7	70.0	52.3
Unpaid family worker	90,039	45.0	80.6	47.6

Source: ‘Employment of disabled persons’, 2nd quarter 2011, INS, Bucharest, 2011.

Commentary

Assistance given to disabled people is a way of increasing their employability. Among the 1.3 million unemployed disabled people in Romania, 64.0% of them stated that they would need one or more forms of assistance to be able to work:

59.0% would require special working conditions at the workplace;
43.4% would need personal assistance;
28.9% would need special equipment or equipment adapted to their needs.

Luminita Chivu, Institute of National Economy, Romanian Academy