ADVANCING THE PARTICIPATION OF PEOPLE WITH
DISABILITIES IN THE LABOUR MARKET:
INTERNATIONAL PRACTICES AND LESSONS
Presentation to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada
Knowledge Talk
12 January, 2012
Michael J. Prince
University of Victoria
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Our focus today
• What policies act as barriers to the labour market
participation of people with disabilities?
• What policies act as facilitators of labour market
integration for people with disabilities?
• What lessons can be drawn from promising employment
practices at the international level?
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International sample
Anglo-liberal states
Scandinavian-European states
• Australia
• Denmark
• Ireland
• Finland
• New Zealand
• Netherlands
• United Kingdom
• Norway
• United States of America
• Sweden
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Sources
• Prince (2006) International Best Practices In Service Delivery For People
With Disabilities: Lessons from other countries and options for Service
Canada
• Prince (2007) Labour Market Participation of Canadians with Disabilities:
Trends, Barriers, Facilitators, Policy Lessons and Options for Positive
Outcomes
• Prince (2010) New Strategic Directions for Active Employment Measures
for Persons with Disabilities: A Literature Review and Policy Research
Agenda
• OECD (2010) Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers
• Prince (2011) Gaining, Maintaining And Returning To Employment: A
Synthesis Report On Challenges And Successes Of People With
Disabilities In Canada
• World Health Organization (2011) World Report on Disability
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Active labour market programs
Active labour market programming:
• public employment services and administration
• training and special support for apprenticeship
• job rotation and job sharing measures
• employment incentives for recruitment and job
maintenance
• supported employment and rehabilitation
• direct job creation
• start-incentives for self-employment and micro-finance
for businesses
Related measures: laws and regulations, income benefit
systems, social marketing campaigns
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International trends
• The employment rate for disabled persons in most industrial
countries falls within a range of between 30% to 50%
• Employment rates of people with disability from the mid-1990s
to the mid-2000s declined in eight countries; remained steady
in another eight countries; and increased in seven countries
• Canada realized a moderate increase in the average annual
growth on the employment rate of people with a disability as
did Finland and the Netherlands, with relatively stronger growth
rates in Ireland, Mexico, Spain and the UK
• People with disabilities are more likely than people without
disability to be in short-term and part-time employment, selfemployment, and in the “informal economy”
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Disability-related activation measures:
policy types and target groups
Types
Incentives
and
supports
Obligations
and
sanctions
Persons with Disability
Employers
Vocational rehabilitation
Work tax credits
Self-employment assistance
Job creation partnerships
Skills development
Individual counseling
Employment assistance
services
Earnings supplements
Wage subsidies
Tax reduction of social security
premiums
Business loans
Workplace modification grants
Information sites
Mentoring services
Business training and development
Labour market partnerships
Employment service providers
Disability management consultants
Mandatory activity tests
Work capacity assessments
Time-limited benefits
Training courses
Job search requirements
Employment quotas or targets
Employment protection legislation
Accessibility standards
Human rights codes and antidisability discrimination laws
Experience rating of employer
premiums for sickness benefits
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Promising practices
Encouraging practices internationally are evident in four
policy approaches:
1. Reforming assessment procedures to focus on the
capacities of people and their ability to work
2. Changing benefit structures in order to improve work
incentives, such as by offering financial incentives to
employers and or to the employees with partiallyreduced work capacities
3. Expanding rehabilitation and employment services to
support job searches
4. Transitioning from sheltered work to supported
employment and/or social enterprises
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Barriers: a striking degree of continuity
• In policy and service delivery systems:
• the resolve of medical assessment models
• traditional social service approach by many community
supports, e.g., segregated day programming
• the continuance of sheltered workshops and other separated
work settings
• In employment activation measures:
• the absence of personal supports to enable access
• limited supply of services
• access to employment services may be restricted to certain
groups, such as new claimants versus existing clients
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Facilitators
• Access to education and training, and funding
• Informed conceptions about the abilities and productive
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capacity of people with disability
Social networks of friends, confidantes and companions
Personalized employment counselling
Work-focused interviews
Early vocational rehabilitation measures
Financial incentives to assist people with disabilities with
living expenses associated with their impairments
Employers forums on disability, financed and operated by
employer groups
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Facilitators
• Employment services and supports:
• Dedicated and committed staff offering services to clients
• Tailor-made job search activities and training specifically designed
to promote each client’s abilities and strengths
• Adjusting the pace at which people move towards sustained
employment according to their own employability and
circumstances
• Recognizing and responding to the differing needs of people with
disabilities
• Information and advice, including implications for income benefits
and services
• Accompanying clients to job interviews
• Job matching geared to local labour markets
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Facilitators
• Employer supports and services
• Detailed job specifications from employers
• Advice and information about assistive technologies, specialized
training, supported employment, and reasonable accommodation
• Disability management, sickness absence monitoring and return to
work plans
• Ongoing practical and emotional support for both clients and
employers to help with any problems which may arise, such as through
peer support and mentoring
• Active involvement and support from partner agencies
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Responsibilities of employers
• Employment protection laws at times include
exemptions for small or medium sized establishments,
and exclude nonstandard forms of employment such as
casual and temporary or part-time labour, all relatively
important segments of work opportunities for people with
disabilities
• Mandatory employment quotas on employers to hire a
certain number of people with disabilities are not a
widespread policy approach
• Evidence on employment effects of anti-discrimination
legislation on people with disability is inconclusive
(OECD 2007: 164)
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Financial incentives for employers
• The most common policy tool across OECD nations
• Tax reductions of social security premiums (premium
discounts), business loans, and direct grants for
workplace modifications that enable the hiring and
retention of persons with disabilities
• Wage subsidies may help people with disability to
increase their human capital, obtain work experience and
skills which can be transferable to non-subsidized jobs
• The take-up rate for such programs is often low
• The impact of subsidized employment schemes is
“ambiguous” for hiring people with disabilities versus
retaining workers
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Collaborative relationships
• Employer forums can be effective vehicles, often at
regional or sectoral levels, for input by non-governmental
actors into active employment measures decision-making:
• bringing together leading employers and employer
groups
• raising the public profile of the issue of employment of
people with disability
• providing a linkage between employers and government
officials
• linking people with disabilities with employers
• generating inclusive workplace policies and practices
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Opportunities for innovation
• Working together to shift attitudes about people with
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disability and work
Funding to help start small businesses by people with
disabilities and build capacity of social enterprises
Strengthening incentives and supports for employers
Assisting employment service providers to transition from
segregated to open labour market approaches
Enhancing supported employment and more inclusive
workplaces
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Thank you
Michael J. Prince
Lansdowne Professor of Social Policy
Faculty of Human and Social Development
University of Victoria
mprince@uvic.ca
Disabling Poverty and Enabling Citizenship CURA
http://www.ccdonline.ca/en/socialpolicy/poverty-citizenship