Taiwan works toward more employment of people with disabilities there

From the China Post August 3:

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The government has started promoting a campaign to help about 10,000 enterprises in Taiwan to cope with new rules requiring a certain ratio of physically and mentally challenged starting next July.

Wang Yu-shan, chief of the section at the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), made the announcement August 2 at an international conference on the employment of disabled people jointly held by the Eden Social Welfare Foundation and the Chinese Human Resource Management Association.

Under the existing regulations of the Protection Act for Rights and Interests of (Physically and Mentally) Disabled Citizens, government agencies and enterprises with a workforce of 50 must hire one disabled person.

Private enterprises and organizations with more than 100 staff members are now also required to meet the quota of employing one disabled worker.

Wang said there are presently 9,892 private enterprises required to fulfill the obligations to employ people with disabilities.

These regulations created a total of 35,445 job opportunities to physically and mentally challenged people.

In fact, she said, a total of 48,882 disabled people are now working at various organizations because many of them have been willing to hire more of the disabled citizens as required.

However, the unemployment rate among the disabled was about 15 percent in 2006, nearly four times higher than the 3.92 percent rate for Taiwan's entire eligible workforce.

There is still a large number of enterprises unwilling to hire disabled people over perceived "inconveniences."

They would rather pay a fine of NT$17,280 ($563 USD) -- the amount of the current minimum monthly wage -- to local city or county governments to conduct training programs for the disabled.

But the government's revision to the act in order to tighten the rules requires government agencies, firms and educational institutions to hire one disabled person for every 34 staff members on the workforce starting in July 2009.

For private firms and organizations, they have to reserve one position for a disabled person at a ratio of every 67 employees.

This will create about 4,000 new job opportunities.

There are still more than 1,000 private enterprises that have not met the quota under the current rules.

These firms will face greater amounts of fines when the new regulations take effect next year.

The names of government agencies and companies that fail to comply with the rules can also be published in 2009 in accordance with the stipulations of the act.

Wang said the CLA has set a goal of helping all business owners meet the requirement and safeguard their corporate image by next July.

Executives of the Eden Social Welfare Foundation urged the government strengthen training programs for the disabled because they desire to join the job market.

What people with disabilities really need is training for more advanced and sophisticated skills that meet the requirements of the jobs in society, they said.

"Having a mental or physical disability is not equal to lacking capability," said Huang Jow-song, the foundation's chief executive officer, who said the value of the labor of local disabled workers should be reassessed.

Well-known advertising executive Jerry Fan, himself confined to a wheelchair, urged enterprises to hire more disabled people, who are, he said, stable and optimistic and have high EQ (emotional quotients).

"If you think that blind people can only make a living by giving massages, they will never have a chance to do other things," Fan said.