Employers who fail to recruit disabled workers as established by law could face up to three months in prison, in line with the Persons With Disability Act.
Though this tough sanction has never been enforced, a government spokesman said yesterday there were no plans to repeal it from the law enacted in 1969.
A court last week rejected an application for an injunction, which was filed by the Malta Employers’ Association, over the enforcement of a provision on the recruitment of disabled workers.
By law, at least two per cent of the workforce in companies having 20 or more people must be listed in an Employment Training Corporation register containing names of people with a disability.
This was done after defaulting employers started being fined. The proceeds from the fines are being channelled to the new Lino Spiteri Foundation which aims to boost the participation rate of disabled workers.
Article 29 of the law explicitly lays down that any breach could result in “a fine not exceeding €233 or to imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both such fine and imprisonment”.
MEA president Arthur Muscat deemed this provision “outrageous and disrespectful” and called on the government to repeal it.However, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education and Employment ruled out any such move for the time being, saying no changes in the law were planned, noting the provisions had been in place for decades.
“The spirit of the policy is to help people with disabilities have more opportunities by giving them a better chance to find a job as well as [have access to] more training and skill-building (as the funds from those who don’t follow the base line will be used for this purpose),” he added.
Employers are mulling whether to mount a legal challenge to certain aspects of the law, especially on how it is being enforced.
Mr Muscat said that that, soon after the festive season, a general meeting would be held for members to see what they thought.
He said the existing legislation was riddled with “inconsistencies”, including the definition of disabled persons. “We are in a ridiculous situation of not being allowed to verify who among our workforce is on the disabled persons register kept by the Employment Training Corporation due to a dubious interpretation of the Data Protection Act,” he noted.
“So how is an employer supposed to be aware whom among his workers has certain disabilities that might impact on his performance, especially when if it affects health and safety issues,” he questioned.
Mr Muscat pointed out that there were another two disabled persons registers (one kept by the National Commission for People with Disability and the other by the Social Security Department), saying that these caused confusion.
The law was change in July whereby failure to attain the two per cent quota would trigger an automatic “contribution” to the ETC varying between €2,400 and €10,000.
This “contribution” system is being phased in over three years, starting from this year, when a third of the amounts listed are applicable.