Where can we find a person with a disability in the state? This question from personnel officers and accountants at different times sounds at each of the enterprises.. Unfortunately, the problem has nothing to do with either employment or labor rehabilitation.. For the most part, we are talking about the total "
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The draft law No. 5344-d “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Ensuring the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to Work” does not solve the problem of employment of people with disabilities. However, it maximizes the mechanism of employment not of a living person, but of his work book, since it allows one person with a disability to theoretically “work” much more than at one main workplace.
That is, the purpose of the bill is noble, but the essence is harmful. Under the guise of solving the problems of employment of people with disabilities, an attempt is being made to destroy a number of laws in parts relating to this category of society.
The main blow of the draft law No. 5344-d is aimed at the Law “On the Fundamentals of Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities in Ukraine”. Of course, it needs to be amended, but not destroyed, since today it is a strategic document, and another has not yet been created.
Why, judging by the draft law, the fighters for the rights of people with disabilities do not even imagine the complex of problems that this category of the population faces daily, do not create the necessary legislative framework for citizens whose interests they are trying to protect? For example, a package of state social guarantees, which should become a document of principle and which, by the way, has already been prepared by the Office of the All-Ukrainian Public Ombudsman, the All-Ukrainian Public Organization “All-Ukrainian Parliament of Able-Bodied Disabled Persons” in cooperation with other associations of citizens with disabilities and, in accordance with current legislation, needs to be finalized by deputies. This also applies to the social code, which, in order to turn into a non-declarative high-quality and meaningful document, requires significant efforts..
To save time, I will not dwell on the amendments to the laws on healthcare, rehabilitation, labor proposed by draft law No. 5344-d, but will go directly to the Law of Ukraine “On the Fundamentals of Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities in Ukraine”. Let's start with at least the stupid and discriminatory definition contained in Article 1: "
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The paragraph by which the state guaranteed people with disabilities the creation of conditions for the exercise of their rights on an equal basis with other citizens and the provision of their social protection was deleted from Article 2 of the new version of the Law of Ukraine “On the Fundamentals of Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities in Ukraine”.
Article 10 of the mentioned law provided all-Ukrainian public organizations of people with disabilities with the right of an advisory vote when discussing the regulation on which the Fund for the Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities operates.. But the changes proposed by the bill deprive them of this right.. And the fund itself is turning into the State Trust Fund for the Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities, which finances exclusively measures aimed at employing people with disabilities (Article 11 of the draft law No. 5344-d). Until 2022, it was this fund that provided state financial support to all-Ukrainian public organizations of people with disabilities, but if the draft law is adopted, such support will be a thing of the past.
It is extremely important for public organizations of people with disabilities of different levels to have the opportunity to participate in advisory and advisory bodies and local governments.. After all, in this way they can really influence issues that are vital for people with disabilities.. However, draft law No. 5344-d deprives them of this right, as well as the right to participate in the work of the Medical and Social Expert Commission (MSEK). By the way, let me remind you that it is the activities of MSEC that are among the most corrupt, so public participation in it is extremely important..
In fact, the draft law deletes from the Law of Ukraine “On the Fundamentals of Social Security…” everything related to public organizations of people with disabilities, leaving only Article 16: “in order to ensure the rights of people with disabilities and their social protection… attracting people with disabilities to public activities, implementing public.
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If the draft law in question is adopted, Article 13 will disappear from the Law “On the Fundamentals of Social Protection…”, according to which “central and local executive authorities and local self-government bodies should provide assistance and promote public associations of persons with disabilities in. That is, if earlier public associations of people with disabilities in their activities could rely on support from the authorities, now they will actually be left alone with their problems.
The Law “On the Fundamentals of Social Protection…” gives the right to public associations of people with disabilities to carry out the necessary economic activities by creating self-supporting institutions, organizations and enterprises. All of them not only provide jobs for people with disabilities, which is extremely important in itself, but also provide the resources necessary for the full-fledged activities of the founding organizations.. That is why the state provides certain benefits to enterprises of organizations of people with disabilities and provides state orders for products manufactured by them.. However, draft law No. 5344-d deprives such enterprises of the right to benefits, as well as the right to exist.. Instead, article 11 of the draft law proposes the creation of so-called protected employment enterprises, as well as enterprises and entrepreneurs for the labor integration of persons with disabilities.. However, it is not clear how they differ from their predecessors and why create them..
We see that draft law No. 5344-d actually excludes associations of citizens with disabilities from public life and deprives them of the right to really influence issues related to the target group they care about. If the bill is passed, they will not be entitled to state support and the opportunity to carry out economic activities.. And for the enterprises they founded, which made it possible for their founders to survive, tax incentives will be abolished.. In the future, this may lead to the disappearance of public associations of people with disabilities as a social phenomenon and one of the components of civil society in Ukraine.
Instead, draft law No. 5344-d is supplemented with too detailed articles relating to the employment of persons with disabilities. In our opinion, articles 17–20 of the draft law can be considered as proposals to the Code of Labor Laws, and even then, if they are finalized jointly with all-Ukrainian associations of citizens with disabilities.
In the first days of the new year 2023, the Ukrainian parliament will rest for some time.
On the one hand, civil society hopes that deputies will have time to familiarize themselves with the bills they will vote for.. In this case - with the bill No. 5344-d. And they will see the attitude of civil society towards it in the face of associations of citizens with disabilities and people with disabilities themselves. On the other hand, people with disabilities themselves, as well as their public organizations, will have time to read and understand how the Ukrainian authorities, represented by the authors and customers of the mentioned bill, plan to take care of them..