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Gosh, this is such a tough one. I know I’ve harped on about this before, but reading this article in the Herald today made me think about it all over again, and I’m interested in your thoughts too. The gist of it is this: that a new law being introduced next week will make it illegal for employers to pay disabled workers less than the minimum wage, unless an exemption is applied for.
What does this mean? Well, for those in sheltered employment environments such as IHC and CCS workshops, many will find themselves out of a job. In fact, the Herald’s article states that in some instances, sheltered employee numbers have had to be cut by two-thirds as the employer could no longer afford to employ them all.
By this week, one week before D-day, the number of disabled people employed in what are now called “business enterprises” had plunged from 6000 to 1200.
However on the other hand, workers like Mario Arnerich, who is featured in the article, are now able to receive the same pay as his workmates, and feel like he truly is a valued part of his work environment. It also, I believe, helps foster an inclusive culture where disabled people are treated just the same as anyone else.
Arnerich is one of the winners from the reform because he has only a slight intellectual disability. He can talk coherently and drives his own car to work.
Another positive story:
Another client, Michael, 44, has gone from earning $66 a fortnight in a now-closed IHC furniture shop to $20 an hour as a half-time office assistant in a city sharebroking firm. He collects the mail, restocks the soap and the office fridges, does the banking, photocopying and the coffee run.
But at the end of the day, the numbers speak for themselves. You have to ask yourself, what are the other 5000 sheltered workshop employees who are unable to find a job in open employment doing with themselves now? Sitting at home doing nothing? How is that at all beneficial to themselves or the disability community?
Leave your comments below!
3 responses so far ↓
1 kiwijan // Nov 27, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Pathways to Inclusion will certainly benefit some disabled people financially; however my concern is those that do not become employees but CP`s - [community participation]. Sounds great but in smaller places just where/what/how this participation will take place is a mystery. Putting pegs on cardboard probably much more productive to some people than sitting at home because there is nowhere in community to go and participate!
2 barbz // Nov 28, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Kia ora,
I don’t think the reason for this is financial, I think it is about social justice. As I have said before, this law is not new, organisations have known it was coming for years so there was a lot of time for planning. I believe all people need to be valued in society.
Being paid $20 a week with no holiday pay or sickness pay is plan wrong. But for some reason it is seen as acceptable because someone has a disability.
I remember the 60’s, I had two sisters with disabilities that lived at home, it was almost unheard of, babies were sent to be with their own kind away from societies eyes. Parents were told to have another baby. You never saw people in wheelchairs, it was almost shameful to have a disability and there fore you were hidden away.
Buildings had stairs, there was no reason to have ramps, everyone could walk.
The thought of a child with a disability going to ordinary school was completely out of the question.
This law is saying that it is time we valued everyone, find real work for those who want it and make it real pay.
I am not saying that it all works perfectly but we have to draw a line in the sand and say we value people, all the people in our society for who they are and what they can offer.
3 UN Chief calls for end to disability discrimination // Dec 5, 2007 at 6:19 pm
[…] poignantly, considering the recent law-change here in NZ limiting employment opportunities for disabled people, the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, has called for an end to discrimination against […]
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