Human Rights & Employment

4. Employment for PWID

4.3. Employment policies for people with intellectual disabilities

The European Disability Strategy 2010–2020, adopted in 2010, refers directly to employment and sets the objective of raising the number of persons with disabilities working in the open labour market in the EU significantly over the next years. A wide range of employment promotion policies and initiatives have been developed over the last years. These include quota obligations, tax relieves, subsides, preference in public procurements, the right to an interview, assistance in adaptation of the workplace, employer incentives, rights to flexible working, job matching, personal assistance at work, support for self-employment, etc.

Employment & Quota Obligations

The setting of quota means that the state establishes a minimum number of jobs to be ensured by the employers to hire persons with disabilities.

The majority of European countries maintain some form of employment quota obligation relating to people with intellectual disabilities. These include: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, The Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. There is no effective quota system in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden or the United Kingdom. Gundersen (2008) identifies three basic models for disability employment quotas in Europe:

• Legislative recommendations

• Legislative obligations, without effective sanctions

• Legislative obligation backed by sanctions (levy-grant system) 

Within this framework the legal existence of quota-systems is no guarantee of full implementation as intended, and there are national differences with regard to the definition of disabled workers counting for quota places. This depends on mechanisms of implementation and enforcement of the legal decision. Even in the public sector there have been difficulties in meeting implementation obligations. The size of companies obliged to apply quotas and the numbers to be employed, also varies between the countries.