Overcoming prejudices against severely disabled workers
Almost 24,300 people with disabilities are currently employed in Thuringia. Most workers with disabilities are employed by public employers and in the manufacturing industry, said Markus Behrens, head of the responsible regional directorate of the Federal Employment Agency, in Erfurt on Monday. However, severely disabled people still have problems gaining a foothold in the job market.
"Many prejudices persist," said Behrens ahead of the International Day of People with Disabilities on December 3. Yet this group is well trained, loyal to the company and ensures diversity in companies. According to Behrens, people with severe disabilities have not been able to benefit from the positive development on the labor market in recent years to the same extent as people without disabilities.
While the number of unemployed people in Thuringia has halved over the past ten years, unemployment among the severely disabled has only fallen by 25 percent.
There are currently almost 4600 severely disabled people without a job in the state. More than 75 percent have completed vocational training. On average, severely disabled people are registered as unemployed for 346 days, around 100 days longer than unemployed people without disabilities. In view of the labor shortage and the large number of vacancies, Behrens appealed to companies to make use of this potential.
Companies with 20 or more employees are obliged to fill at least five percent of vacancies with severely disabled people. Otherwise, compensation payments are due. According to Behrens, only a third of companies in the state have complied with this employment obligation for years. Nationwide, the figure is around 40 percent. Thuringia is therefore at the lower end of the scale.
According to Lebenshilfe Erfurt, there are almost 40 inclusion companies in Thuringia run by various organizations. These employ around 1000 people - around 40 percent of whom are people with disabilities. They work in cleaning, catering or care services, for example.
Despite the significant progress in employment for individuals with disabilities in Thuringia, severely disabled workers continue to face challenges in entering the labor market.The persistence of prejudices against severely disabled workers often hamper their integration into companies, despite their well-established training and loyalty to employers.
Source: www.dpa.com
