Fourth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention

on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

(New York, 7-9 September 2011)

Background Paper for Informal Session on Work and Employment

Note by the Secretariat[1]

Introduction

  1. Employment is central to the ability of persons with disabilities to maintain a decent standard of living for themselves and for their families and is an important factor influencing their opportunities to participate fully in society. Yet, as a group, they are less likely to be employed and more likely to be economically inactive than persons without disabilities, according to available evidence, while those who are self-employed or running businesses are often working in low value-added activities. Youth with disabilities, particularly those whose disability dates from birth or pre-school age, are frequently additionally disadvantaged in their search for work and employment, because they have not had access to education or vocational training, or because teaching staff are not appropriately trained, or because appropriate facilities are not available. Women and girls with disabilities face multiple discrimination and are often overlooked in policy and programme provisions. People with certain types of disabilities – such as intellectual disabilities - often do not benefit to the same extent as others from disability-related programmes.
  2. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities addresses the rights of persons with disabilities to work and employment through provisions relating to livelihoods that can be earned through jobs in the formal or informal economy, through self-employment or through establishment of businesses or cooperatives. This note summarises these provisions, examines their inter-linkages with other articles in the Convention and identifies several questions for discussion at the informal session on employment.

CRPD provisions on Work and Employment

  1. Article 27 (Work and Employment) of the CRPD require that States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to work on an equal basis with others, including their right to opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or accepted in a labour market and work environment that is open, inclusive and accessible. The article sets out measures through which States Parties can safeguard and promote the realization of the right to work, including for those who acquire a disability in the course of employment.
  2. Under the terms of Article 27, States Parties are required to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability in all forms of employment, and protect the rights of persons with disabilities to just and favourable conditions of work on an equal basis with others to equal opportunities and equal remuneration for work of equal value, and to safe and healthy working conditions. These provisions have implications for national laws - including those dealing specifically with the employment of persons with disabilities as well as general labour laws and regulations, many of which contain provisions that restrict employment opportunities for job-seekers with disabilities.
  3. In addition to promoting employment opportunities and career advancement in the labour market, States Parties are required to employ persons with disabilities in the public sector, and to promote private sector employment through a range of policies and measures. These measures could include quota schemes aiming to support the opportunities of those who face particular difficulties in finding employment; wage subsidies to compensate for reduced productivity; tax or social insurance reliefs. Measures could also include the requirement that private companies tendering for public sector contracts demonstrate that their compliance with legal requirements concerning the employment of persons with disabilities (frequently called ‘contract compliance’).
  4. Prerequisites of work and employment rights include effective access to technical and vocational guidance programmes, placement services and vocational and continuing training, open to the population at large. For those who acquire a disability while in employment, States Parties are required to promote vocational and professional rehabilitation, job retention and return to work programmes. It is also important that persons with disabilities have opportunities for work experience in the open labour market. Article 27 contains provisions on each of these.
  5. An important provision concerns the requirement on States Parties to ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to people with disabilities in workplaces. Employers and others are required to take account of the reasonable accommodation requirements of a disabled worker or job applicant with a disability, to enable the individual to carry out the job in question.
  6. States Parties are called on to support persons with disabilities in seeking, obtaining, retaining and returning to work, and also in advancing in their careers. They are required to open up opportunities in mainstream workplaces, both in the public and private sectors, ensuring that reasonable accommodation is provided to individuals and through the introduction of policies and measures to incentivize private employers to employ persons with disabilities, including affirmative action measures incentives and other measures.
  7. The CRPD also calls on States to promote self-employment and the establishment of businesses and cooperatives – a provision of relevance to the majority of persons with disabilities in the world, who live in developing countries or in former centrally planned countries where formal jobs are scarce. States are called on to promote such opportunities, which may be the first, or in some cases the only, option open to persons with disabilities. This will mean not only providing access to entrepreneurship development programmes and business development services, but also ensuring that entrepreneurs with disabilities have access to the credit they require to establish and grow their businesses, on an equal basis with others.
  8. Recognising that skills are a prerequisite for decent work, the CRPD calls on States to enable people with disabilities to have access to technical and vocational guidance programmes, placement services and vocational and continuing training, as a requisite to securing employment.
  9. The importance of giving voice to persons with disabilities is recognised through the call for States Parties to ensure that people with disabilities can exercise their trade union rights on an equal basis with others.
  10. Lastly, article 27 requires States to ensure that people with disabilities are not held in slavery or in servitude and are protected on an equal basis with others from forced or compulsory labour. This provision is of particular relevance in light of several recently exposed practices in some countries affecting people with certain types of disabilities.

Links to other provisions of the CRPD

  1. Realizing the right to work and employment, and ensuring a labour market that is open, inclusive and accessible, requires that persons with disabilities have the opportunity to attend school and are equipped with skills required in the labour market; that the built environment, information and transportation are accessible; and that there is widespread awareness of the work capacity and potential of persons with disabilities. Thus, the provisions of several other articles are relevant to Article 27.
  2. Education: Without good basic education, persons with disabilities are at a disadvantage in their search for decent jobs, and since many people have a disability prior to reaching working age, attention needs to be paid to ensuring that they have effective access to education on an equal basis with others as provided for in art 24.
  3. Vocational training and life-long learning: Ensure persons with disabilities are able to have access to general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination, on equal basis with others (art. 24.5)
  4. The provisions on habilitation and rehabilitation in article 26 are of great relevance to the livelihoods of people with disabilities, especially those living in rural areas. These include the requirement that services be provided close to their own communities, geared to promoting participation and inclusion and participation in all aspects of life. This article also makes a provision that States should promote the availability, knowledge and use of assistive devices and technologies, designed for persons with disabilities – a provision of particular relevance to work and employment.
  5. Accessibilityof buildings, information and transport is a further prerequisite or facilitating factor when it comes to realizing the right to work and employment – the current situation reported in many countries is that much needs to be done to improve accessibility across the board (art. 9 and general principle).
  6. Awareness raising: A major barrier faced by people with disabilities seeking a job or seeking to retain a job following acquisition of a disability is the assumption by many employers that people with disabilities have low or no working capacity, and widespread misconceptions about their skills, merits and abilities. The obligation to tackle stereotypes of this kind that takes immediate effect on ratification (art. 8).
  7. Given the additional disadvantages faced by women and young people with disabilities, the CRPD provisions on Women with Disabilities (art. 6) and Children with disabilities (art. 7 and 23) must be taken into account in terms of implementation of article 27 on Work and employment.

Practical implications

  1. The full and effectiveimplementation of CRPD provisions on work and employment will mean that persons with disabilities shall enjoy the right to apply for public and private sector jobs alongside persons without disabilities, and will not face discrimination. As a result of implementation, workers with disabilities will increasingly enjoy equal rights with other workers in the workplace, equal opportunities for career advancement, job retention and the right return to work, should they acquire a disability while in employment.
  2. Implementation of the CRPD will mean that more and more persons with disabilities will be supported in setting up micro and small businesses, and cooperatives. It will mean that Governments will hire more job seekers with disabilities, and introduce policies and measures to encourage employers in the private sector to recruit disabled workers.
  3. Implementation of the Convention will mean that workplaces and practices are adapted to accommodate the needs of persons with disabilities and will become more accessible Employers and trade unions will have greater roles to play in the social and economic integration of disabled persons, and advisory services to support them in their new roles will need to be developed.

Questions for Discussion

1. What actions and measures should be taken to implement the right to work and employment of persons with disabilities? Who should be involved in the formulation and implementation of plans and programmes to promote employment opportunities for persons with disabilities?

2. What is being done well to promote employment/livelihood opportunities for persons with disabilities? What good examples exist? Do all persons with all types of disabilities benefit equally?

3. How can employers become more actively involved in promoting inclusion of persons with disabilities in the labour force? What role can disability advocates play in this regard?

4. How can trade unions be encouraged to more actively represent the work and employment rights of persons with disabilities?

5. How can more comprehensive information be gathered on the employment/work situation of men and women with disabilities?

6. What role can representative organizations of persons with disabilities play in promoting the realization of the right to work and employment?

[1] The Note was prepared based on the contributions by the International Labour Organization in collaboration with the International Disability Alliance to facilitate discussions at informal session on "Realizing the right to work and employment" to be held on 8 September 2011during the 4th Session of the Conference of States Parties.