Disability authority is seeking provision of more public sector jobs for people with disabilities, writes Siobhán Barron.
From the end of March, about 500 public service bodies will be required to report on whether they have achieved the target set by law to employ 3 per cent of staff with disabilities.
Making this target a legal requirement takes place against a background where employment of people with disabilities has not increased, in spite of Ireland's economic boom. Only one in four people with disabilities of working age has a job. This compares with a 70 per cent employment rate for others of working age.
As job opportunities have boomed in the economy, the proportion of peoplewith disabilities at work has been at a standstill and may even have fallen. In 1977, the government set a target of achieving 3 per cent of public service staff with disabilities within five years. The Disability Act 2005 put this target on a statutory footing for the first time, with effect from 2006.
The target will now operate with a tighter definition of disability, as set out in the Disability Act 2005, to ensure this positive action measure can be focused on people who face significant difficulties on account of their disability.
Placing the target on a legal footing offers an opportunity to breathe new life into the employment target for people with disabilities, to ensure people with disabilities have the opportunity to use their talents in serving the public, and to provide fulfilling careers. A positive approach to disability in the public service can showcase for private employers how people with disabilities can contribute if they are given a job.
With roughly a quarter of a million people employed in the public sector covered by the new law, achieving a 3 per cent target would mean about 7,500 public service jobs for people with disabilities.
A new system to monitor achievement of the public service jobs target begins at the end of this month. Committees in each Government department, involving staff, unions, disability representatives and management, will oversee the achievement of the target in the each of the department's State agencies, in turn reporting to the National Disability Authority (NDA).
The NDA has been given new powers to recommend intervention where a public body is consistently failing to reach its target. Such actions could include reserving specific vacancies to be filled by people with disabilities; holding special competitions confined to people with disabilities; offering training or education to qualify people with disabilities for specific posts; altering work premises or offering technical or other supports to staff with disabilities; and offering information and training to other employees (for example, line managers) on disability and employment.
These new powers add to the existing protections and obligations under equality legislation. It is illegal to discriminate in employment or promotion against people with disabilities who can do the job. An employer is also legally obliged to take appropriate measures to enable a person with a disability to participate or advance in employment, unless these measures would impose a disproportionate burden on the employer.
Such measures could include changes to the building to make it
accessible, an adapted workstation,
special equipment, a variation in work duties or altered
working hours. For the first time, public bodies are being asked to
report, not only on the number of people with disabilities they
employ, but also on
the successes or difficulties they are experiencing in
reaching the target. This will allow a more in-depth examination of
successful practice in employing people with disabilities, and a
greater focus on what needs to be done to achieve it.
Research has shown that Civil Service staff with disabilities have been largely confined to clerical and other junior grades. For the first time, the Public Appointments Service has advertised recruitment at executive officer level which is limited to applicants with a disability.
Recruitment is just one aspect of the employment of staff with disabilities. About four out of every five working-age adults with a disability became disabled as an adult. Recent research by the Economic and Social Research Institute, using data that tracked individuals over a seven year period, showed that one-third of people in a job leave employment after the onset of a longterm illness or disability.
Consequently, strategies and supports to retain staff who have acquired a disability have a key role to play in increasing the number of people with disabilities in employment. The NDA has been offering advice to public bodies as the new system beds down. We want to encourage and support public bodies to do better.
A research project for the NDA on the most effective ways to support employment of staff with disabilities is nearing completion. We want to build on the lessons of three decades of positive action in public-sector employment, and ensure that good practice is shared throughout the public service and with the private sector.
Above all, the NDA sees that there is now a new opportunity to re-energise efforts by the public service to provide jobs for people with disabilities and to ensure that the public sector plays its full part in reducing the high levels of joblessness currently being experienced.
Siobhán Barron is director of the National Disability Authority