Modest gains bring hopeDisabled people getting jobs
By Gillian Cheng
Gillian Cheng The Labour Department launched a Trial Placement Scheme in order to enhance employees' understanding of the working abilities of the disabled.
The Disability Discrimination Ordinance aims at eliminating and preventing discrimination
against people with disabilities. It exerts various effects on employment.The Equal Opportunities Commission publishes the Codes of Practice on Employment, which introduce the ordinances to employees and employers.
"They are encouraged to learn the anti-discrimination laws and their rights," said Miss Mariana Law Po-chu, senior equal opportunities officer at the Equal Opportunities Commission.
"The codes provide guidelines to handle complaints about discriminatory acts or sexual harassment in the field of employment," she said.
Employers are required to handle employees' complaints with reference to the codes. If a case is tried in court, the judge considers whether the employers handled the disputes with reference to the codes.
Sunny Siu Lap Kei, a senior labour officer in the Selective Placement Division of Labour Department, said the ordinance might discourage employers from hiring disabled people.
"Some employers may try different ways to avoid employing the disabled. They think it will be difficult to sack them if they don't want them anymore. In this case, the employers may be prosecuted according to the ordinance," said Mr. Siu.
"They say that they do not hire disabled people not because of their disabilities, but because they find they fail to fulfill the job requirements," he added.
Miss Law admits that it is difficult to judge the reasons for employers' not hiring the disabled.
Mr. Siu said that the ordinance is just a legal framework to aid disabled people against discrimination. The ordinance itself, however, does not aim at encouraging employers to employ disabled people.
"There is no employer employing more disabled people just because of the ordinance."
He said: "We don't want to force employers to hire disabled people by law. We want the employees to fully understand the working abilities of the disabled."
The Labour Department launched a Trial Placement Scheme in 1998 to encourage employers to offer job vacancies to people with disabilities.
Under this scheme, participating employers receive a financial subsidy up to 50 percent of the wages paid to the employee. The maximum subsidy is $3,000.
Mr. Siu said the Trial Placement Scheme is a more useful way to encourage employers to hire disabled people compared with the Disability Discrimination Ordinance.
Employers participating in the scheme are free to decide whether to continue the employment at the end of the trial period.
"Up to now, a total of 293 disabled people have participated in this scheme.
"Among them, 77 percent have been employed by their companies," said Mr. Siu.
The Kowloon Cricket Club is one of the participating companies in the Trial Placement Scheme.
Mrs. Marian Combeer, general manager of the club, started to employ handicapped people 8 years ago."I don't know much about the Disability Discrimination Ordinance, but I am happy about employing disabled people," said Mrs. Combeer.
"Once I employed a severely mentally handicapped man. At first, he did not dare to look into others' eyes.
"After working for several months, he became more confident and dared to face people directly.
"Now, he always has a big smile whenever he sees me. I am very happy with this.
In addition, the excellent performance of disabled people makes Mrs. Combeer want to employ them.
"They always try their best at their jobs. They are also happy with their jobs because they have waited a long time for this chance.
Mrs. Combeer suggested that the government should publicize the working abilities of the disabled so that employers will not be scared to hire them.
