"Employment of persons with disabilities": the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine presented a draft manual for employers

The Confederation of Employers of Ukraine, on June 28 of this year, presented a draft of a Practical Guide for employers "Employing persons with disabilities", which will contribute to the involvement of this vulnerable group representatives in the labor market. The presentation of the full version of the manual and its electronic version on the e-platform "Together", developed as part of the project of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine on the employment of persons with disabilities with the support of the International Labor Organization (ILO), will take place in September 2023.

"The purpose of this Practical Guide is to give the employer a basic understanding of how to organize the employment of people with disabilities in order to comply with the legislation and avoid discriminatory risks. We set ourselves the goal not only to concentrate and summarize a very large amount of information and present it in an accessible form, but also to provide an understanding of the principles of the employment people with disabilities and provide some practical advice. Concentration of practical and legal information will relieve the employer of the need to search for norms in the legislation," said Olena Stepanenko, adviser to the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine.

According to her, the value of the online version of the Practical Guide will be its possibility of being promptly updated. "The Practical Guide will be constantly updated. It is very important that the employers know about the current norms, and not those that were in effect at the time of publication," said Olena Stepanenko.

The team of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine has developed a road map for what an employer needs to do to employ a person with a disability: from notification to the employment center about a vacancy, conducting an interview, to the time of the termination of the employment contract with a person with disability.

"We advise on how to find an employee with a disability, how to correctly conduct an interview or test, how to conclude an employment contract, how to organize an internship and support for such an employee in the team, how to pay for work, what vacation can be. There is a complete list of documents that must be prepared when an employee with a disability starts working. We are considering cases in which it is forbidden to conclude an employment contract with a person with a disability, and in which cases the employee can be refused employment," said Olena Stepanko.

Vitaly Muzychenko, head of the Fund for Social Protection of People with Disabilities, noted the high demand for the Practical Guide. "Development of the such Guide, actually is a road map for an employer who wants to employ people with disabilities, is a very useful initiative. Employers often need to be explained who the people with disabilities are. The Guide will dispel the myth that stops many employers. "It is very important that all legislative norms regarding the employment of people with disabilities will be concentrated in one document. Legislation is "scattered" across many normative legal acts, and it is important to collect them in one place. And it is very important that the Guide will contain specific practical examples based on the best cases of the enterprises," said Vitaliy Muzychenko.

Valery Sushkevich, head of the National Assembly of People with Disabilities, noted that the Practical Guide for employers is devoted to a problem that is extremely relevant today in Ukraine. Employers today fix how to work with people with disabilities, and they take care that such people find themselves. "It is very important that the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine raised this issue. In the Practical guide, concrete answers to the employer with practical examples are given succinctly, completely and meaningfully on the basis of current legislation. The Guide specifically presents what disability is as a phenomenon, explains correspondent legal requirements, the mechanism of selecting an employee from among people with disabilities", said Valery Sushkevich.

He drew attention to the fact that employment of people with disabilities is a systemic problem in Ukraine. "The losses of the economy only from the stay of people on preferential terms due to disability is about 3% of GDP. Not employment, but the passive retirement of people with disabilities aged 15 to 59 is a loss of 3% of GDP. If it is possible to give a job to a person with a disability, it is very important," Valery Sushkevich added.

The Practical Guide consists of three parts: general provisions, selection of employees with disabilities and organization of their work.