NGOs that protect the rights of people with disabilities propose to improve draft law No. 5344-d. A corresponding appeal with proposals was sent to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Chairman of the relevant committee. This was stated by Daria Sydorenko, Executive Director of the League of the Strong NGO.
“We are talking about three systemic changes that can significantly improve the draft law. First of all, it is the introduction of a system of social services. The second aspect is a significant expansion of the range of employers obliged to hire people with disabilities. And a new solution is compensation for people with disabilities when starting their own business,” said Daria Sydorenko, executive director of the League of the Strong NGO.
The amendments proposed to the draft law include the introduction of a system of social services that will facilitate the employment of people with disabilities: a personal assistant for a person with a disability in the workplace, support in the employment of a person with a disability, as well as directly in the workplace, and the introduction of social and labour adaptation.
It is proposed to change the conditions for quota quotas for jobs for people with disabilities. The employment obligation is extended to state and municipal institutions and bodies. This increases the potential vacancies and puts the state on a level playing field with private businesses. The next point is that it is proposed to introduce a system of incentives for self-employment of people with disabilities. That is, when starting their own business, people with disabilities can receive compensation from the state for workplace arrangement.
“Together with other NGOs, we have been working for over two months to analyse the draft law and develop changes. Of course, there are many other important aspects. The table of proposed changes contains more than 100 pages. I hope that most of them will be taken into account. We plan to continue to actively work on the draft law before the first reading so that it really brings real changes for people with disabilities in the labour market,” said Daria Sydorenko.
Earlier, 16 civil society organisations protecting the rights of people with disabilities issued a statement on reforming the employment sector. The statement has now been supported by several more NGOs. Thus, 19 civil society organisations from across the country support the statement on employment reform.