Like for all adults, for people with intellectual disabilities (hereafter ID) work is an important activity that brings them many benefits. If work tasks are adapted to their abilities, people with ID are generally stable and competent workers who reliably perform routine tasks. They feel best in jobs in mainstream rather than segregated environments. International and domestic legislation obliges Slovenia to provide equal opportunities for people with ID to participate in work and employment. In Slovenia, most adults with ID who acquire the status of the person with disabilities are engaged in sheltered work in day care and occupational centres (hereafter DCOC), including so-called integrated employment, where people with ID work in mainstream work environments with external employers, but this is not employment in the formal sense, as they do not enter an employment relationship. With the entry into force of the Social Inclusion of Disabled Persons Act on 1st January 2019, persons with ID can transition from the status of a beneficiary of social rights to that of an employed person and back again. This raises the question of whether people with ID have also been given opportunities to enter open employment in practice and what factors influence these opportunities.
The purpose of the research was to gain an insight into the current situation in the field of work and employment of people with ID from different aspects - the point of view of DCOCs, the point of view of employers and the point of view of a person with ID who has transitioned into formal employment. The research used a descriptive research method and a qualitative research approach. The data were collected through an original online survey questionnaire, which was duly completed by 16 DCOCs, and semi-structured interviews conducted with three employers and a DCOC professional familiar with the case of a user's transition from integrated to formal employment. We carried out a qualitative content analysis of the collected material. We found that 11 out of 16 DCOCs provide integrated employment, involving an average of 7 people with ID and cooperating with 4 employers. DCOCs are in favour of employment of people with ID in the open labour market; some would encourage them to take up employment themselves, but all would support the person with ID who expressed a desire for it. DCOCs see their role in the person’s transition to employment mainly in providing support to the person, his/her parents, and employer in the transition process. We found one case of a person transitioning from integrated employment to regular employment with the same employer. During the transition, the person and their parents were supported by a group habilitator in the form of information, counselling, and follow-up. Two out of three employers interviewed are ready to employ a person with ID, currently in integrated employment, in the future. As advantages of employing people with ID, employers recognize its positive impact on the wider social environment, better social reputation of the company and better well-being of the person with ID. The highlighted obstacles of regular employment are the financial costs of employment, the potential inability of the person with ID to perform the work to an increased extent, less flexibility of regular employment compared to integrated employment. In the case of formal employment, the employer would need assistance such as subsidising the employee's salary, further cooperation with the DCOC professional, training of employees on how to integrate people with ID into the workplace and the provision of an in-company mentor for the worker with ID. Greater social recognition would not encourage the employers interviewed to hire a person with ID.
|
