eyeway.org - beyond the I - The carrot and the stick

Beyond the I masthead
an online magazine from eyeway.org

issue 4 may-june 2005
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Focus: job reservations for the blind

The carrot and the stick

If governments had to motivate employers to employ increasing numbers of disabled people, which would work better: Tax benefits or penalties? We look at the examples of China and Japan.

China

China has been actively adopting preferential policies for protecting employment of disabled people. There are approximately 60 million disabled people in China, accounting for about 5% of its total population. Among them, 24 million are of working age. Of the country's disabled job seekers, 1 million live in urban areas with Beijing home to over half of their number, according to the China Disabled Persons' Federation (C.D.P.F.).

China has brought into full play the guiding role of the government and general public in promoting the employment of disabled people, and made great efforts to create a favorable environment for disabled people to equally participate in social life.
To guarantee disabled people's legitimate right to employment, the government has strengthened supervision and law enforcement, so as to find out and correct in time any employers' infringement of the law and relevant regulations. In line with the principle of combining group and individual employment, China adopts preferential policies as well as supportive and protective measures to promote the employment of disabled people through various channels, at various levels and in various forms:

Group employment: The state and the public arrange for the employment of groups of disabled people by running welfare enterprises, recuperation-through-work organizations, massage cure services, and other welfare undertakings. The government encourages the development of welfare enterprises with preferential policies, such as tax reduction and exemption, to enable more disabled people to find employment.
Individual employment: Employing units hire a certain number of disabled people for suitable posts in proportion to their size of staff. Units with disabled employees fewer than the required proportion must pay into an insurance fund for the employment of disabled people.
Self- employment: The government gives discounted-interest, poverty-alleviation loans, helps impoverished disabled people with the ability to work to set up their own businesses or start projects that can increase their incomes. Meanwhile, the government and social organizations actively offer employment services to disabled people, providing them with free vocational guidance, job referral and vocational training.

By the end of 2003, 4.031 million disabled people in urban areas throughout China had found employment. In rural areas, 16.852 million disabled people are in employment. The employment rate of disabled people overall is 83.9%.

Japan

In Japan, 1.8% of the total employees in companies and 2.1% in public offices must be persons with disability. If employers cannot achieve this rate, however, they only have to pay certain penalties. Many companies consider that it is better to pay the penalty than to employ disabled persons.

In May 2002, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare started a job coaching system as a project to support the employment of people with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. Initially located in two areas on a trial basis, in this system job coaches -- who are really on-site social workers -- support people with disabilities in their workplaces, and give advice to employers and co-workers on the integration of people with disabilities. Such coaches will assist people in the workplace, mediate disputes and provide training to employees and employers.

The government also established an 'Exploratory Committee' of experts in the field, to monitor and assess the training for coaches and methods of supporting disabled people. During a two-year implementation period, virtually all of the employers who received the support and guidance from the system evaluated it as being highly effective.

The aim is to now train hundreds of job coaches in order to support around 2000 people with significant disabilities. After training, job coaches will support disabled employees at their place of work for a few months and provide any necessary follow-up support afterwards.

(References for China: www.newsgd.com; www.chinadaily.com.cn; References for Japan: www.pacificbridge.com; www.dinf.ne.jp; reports compiled by the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities.)

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