The 5% quota of persons with disabilities that the entities with 20 employees and more should respect is not applied. Some of the public institutions of the central administration do not even know about this mechanism that is specified by law. Experts of the Center for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, who carried out a study in this regard, consider regulations for implementing the employment quota for persons with disabilities are needed.
In a news conference at IPN, Ion Cibotărică, public policy and advocacy programs director at the Center, said the authorities should first of all ensure broad informing about the provisions of the law on the social inclusion of persons with disabilities, which clearly says that the employers, regardless of the legal organizational form, that have 20 and more employees create or reserve jobs and employ persons with disabilities who represent at least 5% of the personnel.
Ion Cibotărică noted the regulations for implementing this employment quota would thoroughly explain the legal provisions and would describe the actions that should be taken in accordance with the law. Currently, some of the employers do not know to interpreted the provisions on the creation or reservation of jobs for persons with disabilities and do not understand the mechanism that should be put into practice.
According to him, the regulations should clarify the punishment for the non-observance of the 5% quota as the Contravention Code envisions penalties for the violation of the legislation on the employment of persons with disabilities. “The problem resides in the formulation of this provision - creation or reservation of jobs for persons with disabilities in the amount of 5%. The employees do not fully understand what is meant. How to reserve a job for a person with disabilities? Our recommendation is to create a mechanism, regulations by which the Government will explain the procedure for reserving jobs as there is no mechanism and the punishment is not applied,” stated the programs director.
A study conducted by the Center for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities revealed that only the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection and the National House of Social Insurance respect the mandatory quota as the persons with disabilities represent over 5% of their staffs. Only five institutions said they have a register of the files of persons with disabilities who applied to them for a job.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics’ data that were presented at the news conference, the employment rate among persons without disabilities is 47.2%, while among persons with disabilities is only 19.7%. The employment rate among persons with disabilities in rural areas was 21.1%, as opposed to 16% in urban areas.
