EESC Opinion: Promoting the social integration of persons with disabilities and persons with changed working capacity

EESC Opinion: Promoting the social integration of persons with disabilities and persons with changed working capacity

18 September, 2024: The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), has adopted an opinion supporting the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the open labour market, calling for the promotion of measures and policies that would buttress these efforts. A premise of the Opinion, prepared by EESC rapporteur Pietro Vittorio Barbieri, is that sheltered employment is a form of segregated employment. At EPR, we believe that the two should not be equated, in an oversimplification that risks obscuring the choices of those individuals who wish to remain or return to sheltered employment environments. 

The main actions proposed by the Opinion are the following:

• Possible creation of a joint fund for reasonable accommodation which would be financed by both private and public employers; 
• Promoting incentives designed to encourage entrepreneurship; 
• Providing support to employers to ensure they make workplaces more inclusive; 
• Establishing standards to uniformly identify and compare models and services implemented by national public employment services through benchmarking to identify good practices based on actual data and to promote mutual learning; 
• Incentives related to State aid should always be conditional on respect for workers’ rights and in line with the CRPD, the CRPD Committee and the Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities;  
• Promoting the potential, accessibility and affordability of AI and related technological services.

EPR has discussed these issues with its members through the Return to Work and Partnerships Working Group. We look forward to the uptake of these proposals by European Member States.