The Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans’ Rights, Halyna Tretyakova, expects that the draft law “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding Ensuring the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to Work” (No. 5344-d) will be adopted in 2023.
She said this during a round table discussion on the topic: “Employment of People with Disabilities: European Perspectives in Ukraine” at the “Ukraine – Ukrinform” Media Center.
According to the people’s deputy, the corresponding draft law gives all people who have lost “some functionality” the opportunity to work as they want.
Ms. Tretyakova noted that the document proposes to extend the norm on the employment quota for persons with disabilities in the amount of 4% of the average registered number of full-time employees (if the number of employees exceeds 25 persons) to the private public sector.
“This means that the public sector will also fulfill this quota. If it does not do this, it will be fined,” she added.
The Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social policy and Protection of Veterans’ Rights clarified that such financial fines will be directed to the Fund for People with Disabilities – for the development of “smart workplaces” that are adapted to certain disabilities and will be created in the public and private sectors.
“Disability is multi-colored, so the standards for creating such jobs are what our central executive bodies, the Ministry of Economy, and the Ministry of Social Policy should work on. Such jobs must be created, but they will not be able to be created until such a draft law is adopted,” Ms. Tretyakova added.
In this context, the deputy emphasized that currently the state provides auxiliary means for realizing the right to work for persons with disabilities at the expense of budget funds, in particular the Ministry of Social Policy, the National Health Service, but there is no targeted allocation of money exclusively for the creation of jobs, which creates additional barriers in the workplace.
“In order to be barrier-free, we need to develop three large spaces. A workplace, a public space, where a person with a disability must move without barriers, and people around must understand that we are all different. And such support from each other, which is very characteristic of Ukrainians, must also be extended to people with disabilities,” expressed the opinion of the Head of the Specialized Parliamentary Committee.
At the same time, the People’s Deputy emphasized that the draft law fully implements the UN Convention on People with Disabilities, as well as establishes a rule on how the state should communicate with public organizations representing people with disabilities.
“The draft law fully complies with the conventions of the International Labor Organization, UN conventions, and EU directives. It is completely European. The model being established there is very similar to the Polish model,” Ms. Tretyakova noted.
In her opinion, the adoption and implementation of the legislative initiative is an extremely important next step.
“Therefore, the way is open for people’s deputies, the way is open for the adoption of this bill so that it is implemented. I would like it to be adopted this year, – summed up the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans’ Rights.
As reported, on March 22, 2023, the Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans’ Rights recommended that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine consider in a repeated first reading the revised European integration project of Law No. 5344-d “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding Ensuring the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to Work” .
Source: Ukrainian guard
