Disabled workers fight an uphill battle

According to figures provided by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, only eight percent of the nearly 5.5 million disabled in Poland cite work as their main source of income. Eighty-four percent live on welfare and social support. The Polish Association of Employers of Disabled People (POPON) states that only 19.2 percent of disabled people who are able to work and who are of working age were professionally active in 2004. In the EU the figure is close to 50 percent.

Ineffective policy
"The low professional activity on the part of the disabled is the result of the state's ineffective social policy," says Jan Zając, the president of POPON. Poland spends four percent of its GDP on disability pensions, in comparison to around one percent in Italy or Germany. The funds for stimulating employment among the disabled barely reach 0.2 percent of GDP.

There are few signs that the situation is getting any better. The number of professionally active disabled people has been decreasing in recent years, which can be seen by the fall in so-called Protected Workplace Companies (ZPCh). While in 2000 there were 3,274 of these, in 2004 they were down to 2,599. The number of people employed in the ZPChs fell from over 208,000 to 182,000 during that period.

Help available
The downturn comes despite the fact that employers have something to gain by hiring disabled workers. A company receives ZPCh status when at least 60 percent of its employees are disabled. A ZPCh is entitled to state subsidies for every disabled worker hired. For minor disabilities the company can get 50 percent of the lowest wage, while for serious disabilities, as much as 130 percent. Even companies that do not have ZPCh status, but where at least six percent of employees have some kind of disability, can receive state subsidies for as much as 91 percent of the lowest wage.

Why are employers not hiring the disabled? While experts admit that the high unemployment rate results in stiffer competition for the disabled who want to enter the workforce, they also point to other reasons. Psychological factors are important. "There is a general opinion that disabled people do not have professional experience or enough qualifications," Zając says. Adam Pietraszkiewicz, the disabled owner of AM Soft adds, "This problem is in the heads of both the employers and of the disabled."

Bad law
But apart from stereotypes and lack of information, more concrete matters contribute to the problem. "Instability of the law has a direct impact on the lack of interest in employing disabled workers," Zając claims, pointing out that the bill on professional and social rehabilitation and employment of the disabled has been amended 37 times since 1997. Furthermore, the new amendment being worked on by the government subtracts around zł.400 million from the funds that were given to employers who hire disabled people. "It's easy to make these cuts. The disabled won't go onto the streets and protest," Pietraszkiewicz said.