More needs to be done to find jobs for the
disabled
By Julia Ng, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE: Less than half of disabled people in Singapore have
jobs.
While welfare organisations are looking into finding new jobs for
the disabled, some are calling for more government support in the
form of tax incentives for companies and training programmes for
the disabled.
At the SIA-MINDS Employment Centre, the physically disabled are
given training so that in three months they can earn some income
packing SIA headsets.
But the pay is low, about $50 to $250 a month.
The Centre is one of three centres run by MINDS - the Movement for
the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore.
It employs 650 people.
BizLink, another centre, found jobs for 242 disabled people in the
whole of last year and employs 100 in-house.
They say finding jobs for the disabled is a constant
struggle.
One solution - MINDS has tried to create businesses for their
trainees like
the Maria at Thrift Shop, a food catering business with food
prepared by the intellectually-disabled.
The Maria at Thrift Shop also runs a few shops where people with
Down Syndrome are taught skills in cashier work and customer
service.
Over at BizLink, workers learn to sort and scan used airline
tickets.
As higher-skilled workers move upstream, more lower-skilled
positions are freed up so the centre can take in others for
training and placement.
Some in the volunteer sector want legislation and point to other
countries where there is a minimum quota for disabled
employees.
Aaron Ng, MINDS' executive director, said: "A lot of countries have
a Disability Act, a legislation which helps to secure the social
status, providing employment for the disabled. For instance in
Japan, any company with employment of more than a hundred, is
supposed to employ about 1% of the disabled persons in their midst.
They even have a scheme. If the companies refuse to hire, they pay
a fine. And, Taiwanese as well as Japanese government have got a
very innovative scheme whereby they pool the fines together to set
up a fund to fund VWOs who want to set up social enterprises to
self create employment for the disabled."
In Singapore, it has been argued that such a law would be a
double-edged sword which ends up discriminating the disabled rather
than protecting them.
Others say that having rebates, subsidies and tax incentives for
companies which hire such staff could be a better way to go.
Justin Tan, general manager, BizLink Centre Singapore, said:
"Ultimately, the Government needs to see employment for people with
disabilities as a labour issue, as an employment issue, rather than
a welfare issue. Maybe even some tax incentives for every disabled
person, low-skilled disabled person employed. Government can give
some kind of tax rebate or relief or something like that."
The National Council of Social Service says it does not track how
many disabled people are employed nationwide.
But what's clear is that out of 160,000 disabled, only a very small
portion are employed. - CNA
