Businesses are much closer to reaching disability quotas than official figures suggest as some 700 compliant firms are not being included in government statistics, the Times of Malta has learnt.
That hundreds of smaller businesses collectively employed hundreds of disabled workers was revealed in a meeting of the Malta Council for Social and Economic Development yesterday.
The council met Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, responsible for employment, and Employment and Training Corporation head Clyde Caruana, to discuss jobs for people with disabilities and to lobby for these firms to be included in employment quotas.
In a departure from standard practice, the press was yesterday not even allowed to sit in on the introductory part of the meeting, after the council voted to keep journalists out.
According to the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act, workers with disabilities should constitute two per cent of employees at businesses with 20 or more employees. Those who do not abide by the legal quota must contribute between €1,600 and €10,000 annually, which goes towards training and creating job opportunities for people with disabilities.
Sources on the council, however, told this newspaper that the unrecognised firms employed fewer than 20 employees and were therefore not being included in government statistics. This could, however, soon change.
The sources said a “long overdue” memorandum of understanding between social partners and the government was near completion and should be signed in the coming weeks. This would not only see the 700 firms added to the list but also other changes which would raise the number of employed with disability significantly.
“We have been discussing this MOU for quite some time now and it looks like it’s near completion. We are just ironing out a few minor details and should be ready to sign it. This will give a better picture of the real situation,” the sources said.
The MOU is expected to put an end to a dispute over privacy issues which stopped dozens of companies from being told which of their employees has a disability.
“There are many companies which receive letters and notices from authorities about people with disability that they employ but have no idea who they are, or even how many they employ. This makes it difficult to know if you are compliant or not,” the sources said.
Last week this newspaper reported that the number of people with disability employed in the private sector had more than tripled by the end of last year compared to 2014. The increase followed a government pledge to enforce penalties against businesses who did not reach the targets.
Some 350 people with disability found jobs last year – compared with 100 in 2014 and just 50 in 2010.
Meanwhile, the number of people with a disability given government jobs in the past three years has already equalled those for the previous seven years combined.
An Education Ministry breakdown of disability employment, seen by the Times of Malta, shows that 215 people found public sector jobs between 2013 and 2015, the exact number as those employed by the State between 2006 and 2012.
Government sources involved in the disability employment sector said the figure was expected to increase further in the coming months as part of an effort to reach its self-imposed employment quota of 820 people with disability in full-time employment.
“There have been more jobs identified and areas within which a variety of people with disability can be employed on a full-time and part-time basis with the public sector and we are working to see these positions filled,” the sources said.