The effective employment of people with disabilities is a priority for the Committee for Labour, Employment and Social Protection of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee.
The effective employment of people with disabilities is a priority for the Committee for Labour, Employment and Social Protection of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee.
Legislation provides for additional measures aimed at ensuring their employment. Furthermore, legislation guarantees disabled persons the right to work, prohibits discrimination in employment on grounds of disability, and includes specific measures to assist with employment.
People with disabilities can earn a living, achieve professional fulfilment, feel useful to society, and gain self-confidence.
Seeking employment through the public employment service offers certain advantages. In addition to standard services, disabled persons are provided with additional guarantees:
- employment in reserved workplaces,
- vocational rehabilitation,
- priority referral for training with payment of accommodation and travel expenses, supported employment,
- provision of subsidies for self-employment.
Options are available. All services are free of charge.
The Vitebsk region is home to 57.4 thousand citizens with disabilities, with over 25 thousand individuals aged 18 to the general retirement age. Of these, 14.2 thousand have employment recommendations. Among those with employment recommendations, 6.2 thousand are employed, representing 43.7 percent.
To facilitate the involvement of disabled persons in the workforce, the region has established conditions for their vocational training, financial support for entrepreneurial activities, adaptation to work, and the creation of specialised new jobs.
The measures taken allow for an annual increase in the proportion of employed disabled persons among those seeking employment. More than 50 percent of disabled persons who apply to the employment service find suitable work.
In January–November 2021, 375 people with disabilities were registered as unemployed. Taking into account those registered as of 01.01.2021, 465 disabled persons required employment assistance.
Over the 11 months of 2021, 243 people with disabilities were employed, including 106 disabled persons through established quotas.
The proportion of employed disabled individuals among those seeking employment was 52.3 percent, which is 8.9 percentage points higher than in the corresponding period of 2020 (43.4 percent). In 2019, the indicator was 40.6 percent, in 2018 – 38 percent, in 2017 – 31.3 percent, and in 2016 – 27.3 percent.
In January – November 2021:
- 13 disabled individuals were directed to vocational training;
- 34 participated in paid public works;
- 2 received financial support in the form of a subsidy for organising entrepreneurial activities.
Annually, nearly 50 people with disabilities are employed as part of their adaptation to work activities. This year, adaptation to work activities has been organised for 43 disabled individuals. Essentially, this is an internship: the disabled person consolidates skills in practice and learns to interact with other people. A fixed-term employment contract with a disabled person is concluded for a period of 6 months to a year.
* Employers organising the adaptation of disabled individuals to work activities receive full compensation from the state for labour costs. They can also count on reimbursement for expenses incurred in acquiring equipment, materials, and workwear.
This year, adaptation for disabled individuals has been organised in the following professions: work therapy instructor, club leader, computer graphics operator, copying and duplicating machine operator, radio-electronic equipment fitter and assembler, secretary, customer service specialist, seamstress, manufacturer of artistic wooden products, storekeeper, supply agent, and others.
In 2021, to maximise assistance in the employment of unemployed disabled individuals, work continued on organising supported employment for people with disabilities.
Over 1000 unemployed disabled individuals with employment recommendations have been informed about the employment assistance measures provided by the region's labour, employment, and social protection bodies through various channels.
As a result of the work carried out, 374 disabled individuals expressed their consent to employment assistance, of whom 313 subsequently registered as unemployed; all were offered supported employment.
If the disabled individual agrees, the employment service organises their individual support:
- preliminary engagement with the employer, joint visit to the employer and obtaining a preliminary interview outcome
- monitoring the employment of persons with disabilities for 3 months after employment.
Providing such assistance to persons with disabilities is effective, ensuring a high percentage of their employment. For example, in January–November 2021, 40 unemployed persons with disabilities agreed to be accompanied to employers, of whom 37 people, or 92.5 percent of those who agreed, were employed as a result of the accompaniment.
Every year, new specialised workplaces for persons with disabilities are created in the Vitebsk region. The financing of employers' expenses for the acquisition of equipment that creates safe working conditions, taking into account labour protection, safety engineering and industrial sanitation standards and requirements, the use of which in workplaces will allow persons with disabilities to perform work and functional duties in accordance with the conclusion of the medico-rehabilitation expert commission, is carried out from the budget of the state extra-budgetary fund for social protection of the population of the Republic of Belarus.
Long-term cooperation has been established with enterprises of public associations of persons with disabilities "Belarusian Society of the Deaf", "Belarusian Association of the Visually Impaired": PUP "Nit'" (Orsha), PUP "Galant" (Vitebsk), PUP "Elekt" (Vitebsk), which have proven themselves as reliable partners strictly fulfilling contractual obligations.
In the period from 2002 to 2020, 239 new specialised workplaces for persons with disabilities were created.
In 2021, the creation of at least 9 new specialised workplaces for persons with disabilities is planned.
Source: vitebsk-region.gov.by