The Dutch government has scrapped plans to allow companies to pay disabled people less than the legal minimum wage after concluding the process would be too complicated.
Companies that employ disabled people are currently given a subsidy by the local council, with the person in question being paid according to the same collective labour agreement as his or her colleagues.
Under the new plan, however, the employer would only have paid for the productivity of the person with a disability, who could then claim a top-up to minimum wage level from their local council.
The legislation, known as the Participation Act, was supposed to make it easier for employers to take on people with disabilities. However, it was condemned by disability rights campaigners, the macro-economic policy unit CPB and the Dutch human rights commission.
"The decision means that we are now being seen as equals," campaigner Jiska Stad-Ogier told Dutch News. "That this plan was ever dreamed up is too bizarre for words – shutting out a vulnerable group out and paying them less money while they have such high care costs."
Research from the government’s social policy unit, SCP, has shown that fewer disabled people are finding jobs since sheltered work schemes were phased out. The SCP looked at 11,000 people who were on a waiting list for a sheltered work place before the new legislation came into effect. Only one third found a job within two years, compared with around half under the old system, the SCP said.
Source: Dutch News
The Dutch government has scrapped plans to allow companies to pay disabled people less than the legal minimum wage after concluding the process would be too complicated.
Companies that employ disabled people are currently given a subsidy by the local council, with the person in question being paid according to the same collective labour agreement as his or her colleagues.
Under the new plan, however, the employer would only have paid for the productivity of the person with a disability, who could then claim a top-up to minimum wage level from their local council.
The legislation, known as the Participation Act, was supposed to make it easier for employers to take on people with disabilities. However, it was condemned by disability rights campaigners, the macro-economic policy unit CPB and the Dutch human rights commission.
"The decision means that we are now being seen as equals," campaigner Jiska Stad-Ogier told Dutch News. "That this plan was ever dreamed up is too bizarre for words – shutting out a vulnerable group out and paying them less money while they have such high care costs."
Research from the government’s social policy unit, SCP, has shown that fewer disabled people are finding jobs since sheltered work schemes were phased out. The SCP looked at 11,000 people who were on a waiting list for a sheltered work place before the new legislation came into effect. Only one third found a job within two years, compared with around half under the old system, the SCP said.
Source: Dutch News
