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The status of occupational integration of the disabled will be analysed in Avante 2008
Publication date: June 2008
Employer sensitivity to occupational integration of the disabled in Spain, the legal framework, the problems of managing people and abilities, the experiences of other countries and strategies of integration through sport and culture will be the main topics of debate at the 1st International Congress on Employers and Disability which will be held on the 5th and 6th of June in Fira de Barcelona’s Avante show. The Equipara Foundation, an independent organisation which raises awareness on equality of job opportunity and professional development opportunities of disabled persons, is organising this event in association with the company, HSM.
In Spain, 28.5% of the 2.3 million plus disabled persons aged between 16 and 64 are currently employed, as opposed to the 62.4% of the working age population without disability. The Law on the Social Integration of the Disabled of 1984 enforces a compulsory placement quota of 2% of disabled people in companies of 50 or more employees and 4% in public administration. According to the Equipara Foundation, 8 out of 10 companies required to comply know the Law but, in the majority of cases, only superficially, and even though 3 out of 4 companies state they employ disabled people, only 1 out of 7 do so in accordance with the legislation. The Equipara Foundation warns that occupational integration of the disabled is coming to a standstill, although companies are showing a change in mentality.
For the Equipara Foundation, the impediments to social integration are: difficult access to the workplace, insufficient training of disabled people, limited social and employer awareness, lack of communication between agents involved in the integration, a poorly defined legal framework and a lack of collective structure. Nonetheless, the organisations which recruit disabled persons express satisfaction with the work done by these employees, highlighting the level of their performance and motivation.
The list of speakers at the Congress includes the former director general of UNESCO and chairman of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace, Federico Mayor Zaragoza; the writer and academic, Álex Rovira; the rally driver, Isidre Esteve; executive first vice-chairman of the ONCE foundation and chairman of the Fundosa Group, Alberto Durán López; the chairman of the Advisory Council of the Fundación Deporte, Cultura e Integración Social (Sports, Culture and Social Integration Foundation), Iñaki Urdangarín and member of “disABLED South Pole Expedition 2008”, Xavier Valbuena.
Other participants will be representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Immigration; the College of Social Graduates; Adecco, Grupo Siro, BBVA, Repsol, DKV and Mapfre, as well as organisations which work in the field of the disabled, such as the ONCE Foundation, the Downs Syndrome Foundation, the Federación Empresarial Española de Asociaciones de Centros Especiales de Empleo (Spanish Business Federation of Associations of Special Employment Centres), FEACEM; Comité Español de Representantes de Personas con Discapacidad (Spanish Committee of Representatives of Disabled People). CERMI; the NEXIA Foundation, Fundación Compromiso Empresarial (Employers’ Commitment Foundation), Fundación Empresa y Sociedad (Employers and Society Foundation) and the Prevent Foundation. A representative from the Corporación Andina de Fomento (Andes Promotion Corporation), CAF, will explain the case of occupational integration of disabled people in Mexico.
Barcelona, June 2008
Attached archives: 1st International Congress on Employers and Disability
Head of press: Maria Dolors Herranzº
Contact telephoneo: 93 233 25 41
Email address: mdherranz@firabcn.es