Money

Despite job rules, disabled face stigma

By Wang Wen (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-08 07:48

The likelihood of landing a top job remains low for people with disabilities in Beijing, an NGO has warned, despite news that as many as 87,000 are employed in the city.

That number might seem high, but the capital's disabled population now stands at 990,000. That puts the percentage of employed at only 11 percent.

Social enterprises - meaning private and State-owned companies - are the biggest employers of disabled people at 39,000. The second largest group is welfare enterprises set up by the government specifically to provide income opportunities for disadvantaged groups. They employ as many as 13,000.

The NGO - Beijing Disabled Persons Federation - revealed that 21,193 people with disabilities have been employed over the last five years in Beijing, a number that is predicted to rise by 3,000 every year.

"People with disabilities can work in any position at enterprises such as IBM, but few manage to climb high because of a lack of skill and education," said Hou Shufen, deputy director general of the federation.

Hou said while employment rates were very high for university graduates, at 98 percent, there were actually very few people going through the system.

To improve matters, she said the federation is working to provide free training to help all people with disabilities become more employable.

However, not everyone believes enough is being done to help.

"Training is being offered, but it cannot connect disabled people with jobs on its own," said Xie Yan, a spokesman with the Beijing One Plus One Cultural Exchange Center in Beijing, which works to help disabled people.

Xie said training should be geared toward preparing them to undertake work in demand.

The government policy of helping the disabled is more direct: a policy requires that at least 1.7 percent of staff on enterprises and institutions must be disabled people.

Fines are dished out to those companies that don't comply, known as a "guarantee fund".

Rewards are also commonplace for any that do obey, with the NGO handing out commendations to 107 enterprises on May 28 for equality at work over the last four years. Ten enterprises received prizes of 100,000 yuan with another 97 taking home 50,000 yuan each.

However, Xie said some enterprises still opt to pay the guarantee fund rather than employ disabled people, adding that they do not believe in them as an effective work force.

Xie said some enterprises even pay people with disabilities to pretend to be their employees so that they can avoid the penalty.

"Only when people with disabilities have key roles in enterprises will employers realize they are fully employable," Xie said.