Labor force participation of people with disabilities in the time of Coronavirus – opportunities and stumbling blocks

Not many of us are lucky enough to find our dream job and stay in it until the day we retire. Sometimes this might be due to health and medical reasons, which could necessitate occupational rehabilitation. If people have a severe disability, Germany’s Federal Integration Offices, or Inclusion Offices along with the pension insurance providers are the responsible authorities. (Editor’s note: They are akin to the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic also has a dramatic impact on the labor market.

In this REHACARE.com interview, Christoph Beyer explains how this affects employees with disabilities, describes the steps it would take to lead people from long-term unemployment to a more inclusive labor force participation in the future, and reveals the lessons we should draw for the post-COVID labor market.

Mr. Beyer, you are the chairman of the Federal Association of Integration Offices and Principal Welfare Offices (BIH) and posited in an interview with the Rhineland Regional Association (Landschaftsverband Rheinland, LVR) that the current situation will reveal whether Germany truly takes inclusion seriously. COVID-19 has exposed many weak spots that Germany must rectify in the future. How worried are you that inclusion efforts will fall by the wayside?

Christoph Beyer: Fear is always a complex emotion. Since the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities entered into force over ten years ago, Germany has had sustained economic growth with a steadily declining unemployment rate. All the measures that have been underway over the last decade – the Bundesteilhabegesetz (Federal Participation Act), the amendment of social assistance and services with a new sectioning from the German Social Code Book XII to Book IX (editor’s note: integration assistance services are now segregated from social welfare benefits) – took place in a powerful economic context. The social assistance system underwent expansion in recent years, which also benefitted people with disabilities.

Multiple factors affect our current situation: on the one hand, there is the pandemic and the resulting reorganization of the way we work. An aging population is another important aspect. These demographic changes are also reflected in companies as their workforce is gradually aging. The digitization of the workplace plays yet another major role. More and more so-called "menial" jobs that take comparatively little training or skill are disappearing and are being replaced or assisted by robots. This means that we barely require workers to handle assembly-line tasks today. Human-machine interaction comes into play here. Machines are designed to make work easier, but not necessarily displace people. You have to perform a delicate balancing act as a result.

So, we have these three events: Industry 4.0, demographic changes, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, people with disabilities are proportionally more likely affected by unemployment and long-term unemployment. We have great assistance and support services but unquestionably, it takes more effort to break a severally disabled person out of long-term unemployment.

One thing we can say so far is that there is currently not an increased number of applications for termination of severely disabled employees. It goes without saying that some companies find other ways to dismiss employees – through employment termination agreements, severance packages, and expiring temporary employment contracts – none of which appear in employee termination statistics. Having said that, we are doing everything we can right now to retain existing jobs. Of course, we are also thinking of ways to create new job opportunities after the pandemic and to prevent more job losses – by giving powerful incentives, for example.

At any rate, I feel optimistic that we will get through these difficult circumstances together. However, it requires both employers and employees to have a willingness to adapt to changing environments. And this is where we come in and provide support via our consulting and support options.

Unemployment rates have recently risen for both people with disabilities and for people without disabilities. If you had one wish for the post-pandemic labor market, what would it be as it relates to issues of inclusion, reemployment, and continued work of people with disabilities?

Beyer: I hope we won’t forget the good experiences we had during the pandemic once it is over. Employers presently observe that their severely disabled employees cope and thrive during this time and are just as effective and valuable as their non-disabled peers.

Even before the pandemic, employment tremendously improved the self-esteem and confidence level of people with disabilities. They are acutely aware of the obstacles they had to overcome and the hard work they had to put in to prove their value at work. They always have a higher level of organizational identification and commitment than other employees and it now gets an extra boost.