Recognition of the status of disabled worker (RQTH)

Being recognized as a disabled worker gives access to a set of measures put in place to promote the professional integration of people with disabilities and their continued employment. The steps to obtain this recognition are carried out with the Commission for the Rights and Autonomy of Persons with Disabilities (CDAPH).

  • What is the recognition of the status of disabled worker?

The recognition of the status of disabled worker (RQTH reconnaissance de la qualité de travailleur handicapé) is an administrative decision which grants people with disabilities a status allowing them to benefit from specific assistance.

A procedure for recognition of the status of disabled worker is initiated during the examination of any request for allocation or renewal of the AAH  (disabled adult allowance)

  • Who is concerned by the recognition of disabled worker?

A disabled worker is considered to be ”  any person whose possibilities of obtaining or keeping a job are effectively reduced as a result of the alteration of one or more physical, sensory, mental or psychological functions  “.

  • What does it mean to be recognized as a disabled worker?

Asking for recognition of the status of disabled worker (RQTH) means having your ability to work officially recognized by the Commission for the Rights and Autonomy of Persons with Disabilities (CDAPH), according to your disability-related abilities.

This recognition is accompanied by referral to a work-based assistance establishment or service, to the labor market or to a vocational rehabilitation center (CRP).

  • What are the specific measures related to the recognition of disabled workers?

Being recognized as a disabled worker makes it possible, in particular, to benefit from the following measures:

  • orientation, by the Commission for the Rights and Autonomy of Persons with Disabilities (CDAPH) towards an establishment or service providing assistance through work, towards the labor market or towards a vocational rehabilitation centre;
  • the employment obligation ;
  • access to the civil service by competition, adapted or not, or by specific contractual recruitment (link to the sheet “Disability: access to the civil service”);
  • assistance from Agefiph (link to the “Agefiph assistance” sheet).

Recognition of the status of disabled worker (RQTH) also gives priority access to various employment and training aid measures, as well as adjustments to existing systems (apprenticeship contract, single contract insertion, etc.).

Some people do not need to apply for RQTH to automatically benefit from the same rights:

  • victims of accidents at work or occupational diseases resulting in permanent incapacity of at least 10% and holders of an annuity a mandatory social protection scheme;
  • recipients of an invalidity pension;
  • holders of a disability card;
  • holders of the Allowance for Disabled Adults (AAH)

A one-stop shop for access to rights & benefits

The law provides for the establishment in each department of an MDPH (Maison departamental pour les personnes handicappees). Each MDPH is designed as a one-stop shop for access to the rights and benefits of persons with disabilities. To respond to all issues related to disability, the MDPH involves at the departmental level the Departmental Council, the State services (DDCS, DIRECCTE, National Education), the Regional Health Agency (ARS), the social protection organizations (CAF, CPAM), the French Mutuality and the associations representing people with disabilities.

It thus brings together the various actors in the field of disability at the departmental level.

Accessibility

The generalization of the principle of accessibility on all floors. Accessibility is an essential condition for enabling everyone to exercise the acts of daily life and to participate in social life. This is why the disability law reaffirms the principle of generalized accessibility regardless of the disability (physical, sensory, mental, psychic, cognitive, multiple disabilities).

The obligation of accessibility includes the entire chain of seamless travel. The law sets out obligations of results and deadlines to be respected which vary according to the field:

  • establishments open to the public,
  • prefectures and universities
  • new multi-family residential buildings,
  • new detached houses,
  • public transport,
  • accessibility of TV programmes to deaf and hard of hearing people: the obligation to subtitle audiovisual programmes within 5 years, use of sign language
  • access to polling stations
  • access to online public communication services and the AccessiWeb label.

A communal or inter-municipal accessibility commission is created in municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants. Its mission is to make an inventory of the accessibility of public spaces and to draw up a report presented annually to the municipal or intercommunal council, so that it can draw up a plan of the work to be carried out.

Employer incentives

Agefiph can set up and finance certain aids (e.g. adaptation of machines, adaptation of workstations, etc.). Specific support exists for the employment of a severely disabled worker.

The Fund for the Professional Integration of Disabled Persons

Established by law n° 87-517 of July 10, 1987 , AGEFIPH is the Management Association of the Fund for the Professional Integration of Disabled People. As such, it manages the fund for the professional integration of people with disabilities to promote access to and retention in employment for people with disabilities.

The actions initiated and implemented by AGEFIPH all aim to facilitate professional integration, in the ordinary working environment, as well as the continued employment of disabled people in private companies.

AGEFIPH’s mission is to promote the professional integration and continued employment of people with disabilities in private companies and in the ordinary working environment.

In the service of this mission, AGEFIPH:

  • Collects and manages contributions from private companies subject to the 6% employment obligation.
  • Forges and leads partnerships with national and local public actors (Regional Councils, Pôle Emploi, etc.) intended to amplify public policies in favor of people with disabilities.
  • Proposes a range of interventions consisting of advice, support and financial aid for people with disabilities and businesses.

AGEFIPH’s interventions are aimed at:

  • Disabled people who are beneficiaries of the employment obligation, including workers recognized as disabled by the Commission for the Rights and Autonomy of Disabled People (CDAPH), but also holders of the disability card and holders of the adult allowance disabled (AAH) .
  • Private companies , whatever their size, whether or not they are subject to the obligation to employ disabled people.

Any company with 20 or more employees has the obligation to employ people with disabilities, up to 6% of its workforce. This may include:

  • direct hiring of workers with disabilities,
  • the provision within the company of employees with disabilities by temporary employment companies or employers’ groups,
  • by purchasing goods or services from adapted companies or ESAT, or subcontracting. In this case, the company benefits from a deduction of up to 75% of the amount of the financial contribution.

Otherwise, it must pay 6% of its annual payroll to Agefiph.

The fund is fed by contributions paid by companies with 20 or more employees who do not reach the legal employment rate of 6% of disabled workers. AGEFIPH is a signatory, with the State, the Secretary in charge of disabled people, Pôle emploi, the FIPHFP, CHEOPS, UNML, the National Fund for Solidarity and Autonomy (CNSA), the Association of Regions of France ( ARF), ADF, the National Health Insurance Fund for Salaried Workers (CNAMTS), and the Caisse Centrale de la Mutualité Sociale Agricole (CCMSA) and the Social Security of the Self-Employed of the “Multi-Party Multi-Annual National Agreement on Objectives and Means for the employment of disabled workers 2017-2020” concluded in November 2017.  The minister in charge of employment approves the statutes of the association and approves its budget. Most recent figures Workforce: 450 employees in 2019, Annual budget: €435.5 million in 2018.

  • Employer incentives

Agefiph can set up and finance certain aids (e.g. adaptation of machines, adaptation of workstations, etc.). A specific aid exists for the employment of a severely disabled worker.

In return for the payment of the Agefiph tax in the event of non-employment of disabled people, aid is possible (and paid by Agefiph) for companies, particularly for workstation adaptation.

Specific aid to encourage companies to hire disabled people has been initiated by the government. Thus, financial aid of up to €4,000 is granted to companies and associations, whatever their size and structure, which recruit a disabled worker.

 

The protected and adapted work sector

The protected and adapted work sector (secteur du Travail Protégé et Adapté STPA) includes adapted companies EA and Work support institutions and services ESAT.

ADAPTED COMPANIES

The adapted enterprise is an enterprise in the ordinary working environment with the particularity of employing a proportion of disabled workers in the workforce of the enterprise. In return, the adapted company receives financial aid for the employment of each worker with a disability.

The adapted company allows disabled persons to exercise a professional activity or to acquire a 1st professional experience taking into account your possibilities related to your disability. The company can train and make the person  evolve within the company itself or towards other employers. The adapted company can also be a step to access an ordinary company by proposing 3 transition devices:

  1. The springboard fixed-term contract: this contract offers you individualized support to develop your professional project and trains you in search of a sustainable job with other employers. It lasts from 4 to 24 months and is concluded with a voluntary adapted company. This device is being tested until December 31, 2022 throughout the France.
  2. Provision from an employer willing to hire you for 12 to 24 months. This device allows you to work for the employer concerned while remaining an employee of the adapted company that accompanies you and trains you until the final hiring by the other employer.

The conditions of access to an adapted company: either directly with an adapted company, or through an employment advisor from Pôle emploi or Cap emploi.

To be hired by an adapted company, the person must meet at least the following 2 conditions:

  • Be unemployed for at least 2 continuous or discontinuous years in the last 4 years
  • Be a beneficiary of the recognition of the status of disabled worker (RQTH) issued by the CDAPH

Created in 2006 by the transformation of sheltered workshops, adapted companies allow people with disabilities to access employment in conditions adapted to their abilities.

From a legal point of view, the adapted company is a company in its own right. It employs at least 55 per cent of workers recognised as disabled, subject to financial aid from the State (representing on average 20 to 25 per cent of their budget). These disabled workers have the status of employees. They are subject to the same rules as other employees and are paid at least the minimum wage or the conventional salary applied in the structure.

France has about 800 adapted companies that currently employ more than 40,000 employees. The national commitment “Towards Inclusive Enterprise” plans to double these workforces by 2022.

Adapted enterprises and work-based assistance establishments and services (ESAT) pursue the same objective of supporting people with disabilities towards employment, but they do not have the same status and do not target the same audiences. ESAT is a medico-social institution financed 80% by the State. Its workers are users who receive an allowance of 55% of the minimum wage.

  • Who can create an adapted company?

Adapted companies can be created by local authorities or public or private bodies. When they are constituted by commercial companies, they take the form of legal persons distinct from that which presided over their creation.

To be approved as an adapted company, the candidate structure must sign a contract of objectives and means (CPOM) . This contract, for a maximum period of 5 years, may be signed following an investigation process by the regional prefect. This contract also specifies the financial stipulations of the aid granted by the State, which is reviewed annually by amendment.

  • What aid can adapted companies benefit from?

State financial aid for adapted companies can take several forms:

Job aid for non-experimental companies

Within the limits of the provisions of their contract of objectives and means and the financing rules provided for by decree , adapted companies receive, for eligible disabled workers, a wage subsidy modulated by age bracket amounting to:

  • €16,223 per year and per FTE*, for disabled workers under 50;
  • €16,433 per year and per FTE*, for disabled workers aged 50 to 55;
  • €16,855 per year and per FTE*, for disabled workers aged 56 and over.

*These amounts are reassessed annually with regard to changes in the minimum wage.

The aid is paid monthly in proportion to the time actually worked.

A reduced job aid (30% of the hourly minimum wage) can be paid to the adapted company in the event of the disabled worker’s work stoppage due to illness or accident.

  • The support fund for the transformation of adapted companies

The support fund for the transformation of adapted companies, set up on a transitional basis over the period 2019-2022, aims to increase the inclusive perspective of adapted companies and support them in the profound changes induced by the modernization of the intervention framework. suitable companies.

This fund makes it possible to allocate different types of aid:

  • Aid for investment in tangible and/or intangible assets, relating to:

the creation or extension of an establishment;

diversification of production or fundamental change in the whole production process.

  • Aid for counseling services

This aid is granted by the regional prefect within the framework of an agreement concluded with the adapted company.

Key figures on EA

In 2018, 800 Adapted Companies are spread throughout the national territory. An economic reality of €1.8 billion in turnover, €782 million in payroll, 50% of Adapted Companies with commercial status.

  • A strong inclusion

32,000 employees, of which 26,000 with disabilities,

52,100 workers with disabilities who, during a year, have worked in an Adapted Company receiving job subsidy

91% on permanent contracts, 84% of full-time jobs,

75% of disabled workers without qualifications, 3.2% of the wage bill devoted to training.

Source https://www.unea.fr/quest-ce-quune-entreprise-adaptee
  • Diversified activities

More than 200 referenced professions,

66% of Adapted Companies have at least 3 activities,

42% of the activity is carried out by services.

 

The Adapted Temporary Work Company (EATT) offers you the possibility of carrying out temporary assignments taking into account your possibilities related to your disability with different employers while remaining an employee of the adapted company. It also offers support and training to improve your skills. This device is being tested until December 31, 2022 throughout the France by 15 enterprises

Work support institutions and services ESAT

Work support institutions and services – établissements et services d’aide par le travail ESAT  is a medico-social structure for disabled people looking for work. Disabled workers can join an ESAT when they do not have the capacity and autonomy to work in the ordinary environment or in an adapted company.

Differences between an adapted enterprises and an ESAT

  EA ESAT
Mission Sustainably integrate disabled workers into employment Sustainably integrate disabled workers into employment
Objective Create wealth to create sustainable and quality jobs Accompany the worker and enable him to maintain his educational and professional achievements
Financing Self-financed at 80% Financed at 80%
Status of the person The worker is an employee,  he is paid at 100% of the minimum SMIC The worker is a user, he receives an allowance of 55% of the minimum SMIC

Source https://www.unea.fr/quest-ce-quune-entreprise-adaptee

In return for the payment of the Agefiph tax if not employed disabled people, aid is possible (and paid by Agefiph) for companies in particular for the adaptation of the workplace.

Specific aid to encourage companies to hire people with disabilities is initiated by the government. Thus, financial assistance, of a maximum amount of € 4,000, is allocated to companies and associations, regardless of their size and structures, which recruit a disabled worker employee.