22.06.2023
BOSSES AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN THE PITFALLS OF THE LABOR MARKET
"Invisible" - this is how people with disabilities often feel in our country. Invisible to society, to institutions, to employers. For most of them, the world is closed between the four walls of the home, and their lives are divided formally by the dates of appearing before TEMC. And it could have been another way...
In Bulgaria, there are about 655 thousand people with recognized permanently reduced working capacity or degree of some kind of disability. This means nearly 10% of the entire population. Only about 38% of people with disabilities work, and a significant part of them not because they don't want to, but because employers don't want them. At the same time, the labor shortage in the country is becoming more and more acute.
"Without thinking and quite formally, we call these people a 'reserve' for the economy. The very definition says that we all have a flaw in our understanding of people with disabilities. In my opinion, they are "potential", said Dobri Mitrev, chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Association at the National Forum "The social responsibility of large corporations and the work potential of people with disabilities", which was held in Plovdiv. Organizers were Holding KCM 2000 and the Balkan Institute for Labor and Social Policy. "In order for the economy to prosper, people are needed, and we will fail as a nation if we do not do everything necessary to include people with disabilities in the work process," Mitrev was emphatic.
But what is the reality? Employers with 50 and more than 50 workers have a quota for hiring people with permanent disabilities under the Law on Persons with Disabilities. For companies with between 50 and 99 employees, the quota is one person, and for larger enterprises - 2% of the average staff. However, most companies choose the fallback option given to them by law - instead of hiring such a person, they simply pay a compensatory contribution of 30% of the national minimum wage for each vacancy for a person with a permanent disability.
There are several problems here, and the first, perhaps the most important one, which repels employers, is the difficult dismissal of such an employee, commented Georgi Kolev, chairman of the Union of the Disabled in Bulgaria, at the forum. In the event that the employee does not conscientiously fulfill his work commitments, in order to be dismissed, he must have the appropriate permission from the Labor Inspectorate. "Many people with disabilities deliberately do not want to make a decision from TEMC precisely so as not to repel their potential employer," said Kolev. And so a vicious circle is created. Also, disabled people are not well informed about their rights and think that if they start working on a contract, their pensions will be stopped. And there is no such thing, he was categorical.
"These people can be useful to the economy, and above all to themselves," is certain Ivan Neykov from the Balkan Institute for Labor and Social Policy and former Minister of Social Policy. People with intellectual disabilities, for example, often find satisfaction in performing repetitive routine activities. At the same time, employers suffer one of their greatest turnovers precisely in such activities, he cites an international study. According to the US Department of Education, workers with disabilities are rated average or above average on performance, quality, and quantity of work.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy actively supports the inclusion of such people in the labor market. It was stated that under the Human Resources Development Program and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, over BGN 830 million will be invested in programs for employment, training, mentoring and professional development of people from various target groups.
The good example: "Business activities KCM" changed the lives of 100 employees
For 20 years, Holding KCM 2000 has had its own company - "Business Activities KCM", which employs about 100 people with disabilities. At the same time, not only workers who had to leave the production for health reasons, but people from the entire region. The company was created on the idea of the long-time chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO Nikola Dobrev. “It solved two problems. First - people who have a health problem are removed from the difficult working conditions. And secondly, they feel useful and fulfilled. The benefit for the business was that we could organize the workers to do the work for which they were assigned, he explained. - Throughout the two decades, we have never had a doubt that this approach is correct. And I am surprised that it is neglected in quite large corporations," said Nikola Dobrev.
"We are extremely satisfied with the work with people with disabilities. This is part of our corporate social responsibility - to help those who are not like us. And so that we give them the opportunity for decent work and decent pay. If only one of the hundred most successful companies in Bulgaria approaches like we do, 10,000 people with disabilities will live peacefully," said Rumen Tsonev, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Holding KCM 2000. "Such an enterprise has another great advantage - people stay close to their colleagues, and there have been cases when they recover and return to their old jobs," summarized Mariana Gurkopashova, Chief Director of Human Capital Management. The company's statistics show that from 2004 to 2015, an average of five people a year were employed. After that, however, these situations sharply decrease - to less than one person per year. However, this is not a coincidence, but to a significant extent thanks to the occupational medicine service in the holding.
Ever since its establishment, "Business Activities KCM" has been led by Ivanka Piskova. At the forum, she talked about the activities that were entrusted to them even then - maintaining the green areas, cleaning the offices and washing work clothes. Later, a tailoring workshop was opened on the territory of the KCM especially for the employed people with disabilities, and they also coped with this task brilliantly. Then, the activity also expanded in agriculture - with lavender plantations, which were a very successful business for more than ten years. "Behind all these activities are people who are no different from us. You just have to understand them," Ivanka Piskova is emphatic. During the forum, Holding KCM 2000 presented a film telling real stories of those working in "Business Activities KCM" - stories about the satisfaction of being full and confident in your abilities even when you live with the stigma of being defined as 100% unable to work.