Giving more hope to the disabled
Giving more hope to the disabledKeywords Disabled people, Equal opportunities, Germany,Legislation
In Germany, new efforts are being made to give greater opportunities to disabled workers. By law, 6 per cent of all jobs have to be done by the disabled and, if a company does not meet this target, it has to pay into a special fund to help the disabled.
On the Federal Government's payroll, the quota is 6.6 per cent and elsewhere in public services 5.2 per cent. However, in the private sector, only 3.2 per cent of jobs are filled by disabled workers.
The Government is therefore making special efforts to:
give better encouragement – and incentives – to firms to encourage them to employ disabled people;
improve the system for meeting the legal quota – and finding more openings;
enhance support systems for disabled employees to make it easier for them to take up employment opportunities; and
improve co-ordination with the Federal Labour Office and local employment officials.
When the new programme has had time to settle down and its effect can be gauged, the Government will be nearer to its stated objective: to tighten up the system by new legislation.
