Labor market: Inclusion is a long way from being a matter of course

According to Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, people with disabilities are entitled to gain a living by work freely chosen in an accessible labor market on an equal basis with others. But does this actually reflect reality? Which efforts are made to create an inclusive labor market? And what are some of the problems?

"The priorities of labor market policy must be shifted: away from the promotion of special structures and moving towards the simultaneous expansion of inclusive employment models in the general labor market," Valentin Aichele, Head of the CRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) National Monitoring Body at the German Institute for Human Rights already explained in 2016 on the occasion of the publication of the position paper titled "Inclusive Labor Market Instead of Special Structures". The press release explicitly stated that the Institute asks the German Federal Government to “make the general labor market more accessible for persons with disabilities and openly discuss the future of workshops.“

The United Nations has also recommended the gradual removal of special structures since 2015. "As long as people with disabilities still have to work in segregated workshops and employment settings because they don’t stand a chance on the general labor market, there is no full implementation of the right to work and employment as defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities," Aichele is further being quoted in 2016. Yet, not much has happened on that score in Germany. Debates on the subject usually only take place in small settings.

Even though German companies with 20 employees or more are required to fill at least 5% of available jobs with people with disabilities, a majority of employers ignore this requirement and willingly accept to pay fines instead.

Things are not any easier in other European countries: while Belgium has different guidelines for its individual provinces, for example, Hungary has no statutory provisions at all. The employment rate of people with disabilities is under 30 percent in this country and a participation in a professional life is considered to be one of the most difficult feats to accomplish within the European Union (EU).

Meanwhile, things are different in Sweden: Samhall is a state-owned company assigned to provide meaningful work for people with disabilities. As an employment agency of the Swedish economy, Samhall exclusively places people with disabilities in various Swedish companies. There they earn standard wages along with people who don’t have disabilities. If applicable, employees are also free to switch directly over to companies if both parties are in agreement.

Having said that, many other EU countries also show efforts to actively include people with physical or so-called "intellectual" disabilities in the primary labor market. There are many different approaches in Germany as well.

For example, the IN VIA Catholic Association of Social Work on Behalf of Girls and Women in Cologne (Katholischer Verband für Mädchen- und Frauensozialarbeit Köln e.V.) starts as early as possible and assists special needs students in entering the primary labor market by providing job coaching. This is accomplished through theory-reduced specialist training courses (so-called Fachpraktikerausbildungen) that are suited for young women and men with learning disabilities and special educational needs. Since 2014, the association has offered vocational training courses to become a "Community and Social Service Specialist" (German: Fachpraktiker – Service in sozialen Einrichtungen).

In this setting, the job coaches serve as contacts – both for the apprentice and the respective company. Upon graduation, students are eligible to pursue "service-oriented work with people in need of care". Currently, 50 young women and men have embarked on this vocational training. Since the demand was so great in Cologne, the cities of Bonn and Aachen have also decided to adopt this model. What’s more, the training is also scheduled to be launched in the districts of the IHK Düsseldorf and IHK Koblenz in September 2017.

Mentoring projects and so-called peer-to-peer counseling are often a helpful approach for all parties involved. However, to make the entry into the primary labor market easier and fundamentally possible in the long run, individual projects are simply not enough. Things need to start off at a much earlier point if you want to facilitate workplace diversity and inclusion: right from the beginning, accessible structures that don’t exclude and segregate but reflect participation must be provided for all people.