BACK TO
HOME PAGE BACK TO
HOME PAGE EUROPEAN REVIEW
FOR THE EUROPEAN DAY OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES the EU produced material on both health and safety, and employment rates of disabled workers. New Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Špidla, said that the employment rate for people with disabilities was only 40% compared with 64.2% among those without them. This gap varies enormously between Member States with, for example, Belgium recording a 17% difference and the Netherlands 51%. Neither are the total numbers involved insignificant: 15.3% of all 16 to 64 year olds in the EU had a long-term illness or disability and 3.5 million would be able to work if they had the opportunity. The overall employment rate in the EU would increase by 2.25% if these would-be workers were found jobs. The Commission's action plan on equal opportunities for disabled people will focus on three objectives: improving access to the built environment, harnessing new technologies and providing life-long learning.
|
|
|
|
Before and after pictures from the OSHA fact sheet show how colour contrast can help mobility |
|
Nor should health and safety be used as an excuse to discriminate against the disabled at work. The European Agency for Health and Safety (OSHA) published a fact sheet to coincide with the Day which stresses the duty of employers under both anti-discrimination laws and occupational health and safety legislation to treat all employees equally. Making workplaces safe for workers with disabilities makes them safer for all, says the leaflet. In addition to the general principle that the job must be adapted to fit the worker and not the other way around, the fact sheet recommends that the needs of disabled employees be taken into account at the design and planning stage. For instance, it is not acceptable to install an audible fire alarm system and then claim that hearing-impaired people cannot be employed because they cannot respond to an emergency, when a visual signal could also have been built in. The fact sheet goes on to make detailed recommendations divided into topics such as the working environment, signposting, training, promotion, emergency procedures and communication.
|
The fact sheet can be downloaded from OSHA's web page dealing with health & safety and disabled people at: |
FOLLOWING OUR ARTICLE IN ISSUE 27 more progress has been made by British trade unions in embracing recent migrant workers from the EU and beyond. While many abuses remain, workers from the 10 new EU entrants have found the government's registration scheme a good way of regularising their employment status as well as learning of their rights from the TUC advice leaflet which they receive with their forms. Starting to work in the UK* advises how to get a National Insurance number, explains income tax and covers basic rights such as the minimum wage, paid holidays and working hours and breaks. Versions translated into eastern European languages can then be requested direct from the TUC. Problems with migrant workers' understanding of health and safety training has also prompted the TUC and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to produce a leaflet entitled Your health, your safety: A guide for workers* in 19 different languages including those from Eastern Europe.
Meanwhile individual unions have taken up the challenge of recruiting migrants to curtail abuse by rogue employers and agencies. The building workers' union UCATT have opened an advice and training centre at the bottom of the Canary Wharf tower in London's Docklands after a spate of accidents involving Eastern European employees on construction sites. The TGWU took up the case of Polish agency workers in Exeter who were charged £40 a week each for 10 people sharing a 2 bedroom house. The contract with the agency was terminated and the employer, a meat processing factory, employed them directly. Local Trades Union Councils have also played their part with, for example, an initial meeting of 50 migrant workers in Bridgwater leading to weekly sessions with union officials and other advice agencies.
A report to the TUC** breaks down the applications for leaflets by language and area of the UK where the applicant is working. Over half are for the Polish version with Slovak and Czech in second and third places. The geographical spread of migrant workers shows some surprises; the big cities do not predominate but rural counties in Eastern England and the South-West report higher than average numbers.
|
*The leaflets are available on the Internet at:
|
http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/index.cfm?mins=288 and |
|
**PROPPING UP RURAL AND SMALL TOWN BRITAIN |
|
Back to |
Forward to |
Up to |
