Employment of people with disabilities in Ukraine can be based on two models, advisor and presidential envoy on disability issues Tetiana Lomakina said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to her, currently 2 million 2,700 people with disabilities live in Ukraine, of which only 26% are employed.
She also noted that if all employers actually fulfill the 4% quota for hiring people with disabilities provided by law, they will all be employed, but theory and practice are different.
“We talked with companies, with entrepreneurs and found two models. The first is social entrepreneurs – those who, when creating a business, put and continue putting the ideals of society higher than earnings at its foundation. You probably know such examples. For example, Kyiv’s bakery Good Bread from Good People or restaurant in Kharkiv Snow on the Head, where people with mental disabilities work. That is, people initially wanted to do good and after that they formalized it into social entrepreneurship,” Lomakina said.
The second model, as the adviser- presidential envoy on issues of disability said, is the use of international business practices by Ukrainian campaigns.
“The most important thing in such campaigns: the principles of policy, corporate standards, daily routine, the rules are the same for all employees, regardless of whether they have physical or mental disabilities. And if these rules are not respected, the same approaches are applied to all … Such a policy of equality stipulates that a person with a disability may have more needs and the company is ready to meet them, but there are rules, indicators are indicators, the result is a result. And it is in such a situation that all these fears that Ukrainian entrepreneurs talk about (about the difficulties of changing the approach to a worker with a disability, if he does something wrong or he has insufficient qualifications), are simply leveled out by the correct setting of the process of organizing work,” she said.
In addition, according to Lomakina, international campaigns pay great attention to staff training and exploring the capabilities of their employees.
“Their corporate training programs are aimed at closing weaknesses and developing strengths. I am sure that all this is possible in Ukrainian conditions, if we put a person and his qualifications in the center of attention,” she added.
According to her, practice shows that it is this approach that makes it possible to fulfill not even a 4%, but a 6% quota for the employment of people with disabilities.
