3. Labour policies to increase employment opportunities for disadvantaged workers
3.1 National polices designed to sustain disadvantaged workers
The Spanish Strategy for Employment Activation considers as strategic or priority objectives, improving the employability of young people (complying with the provisions of the Youth Guarantee) and favoring the employability of other groups especially affected by unemployment as:
- people with drug addiction problems or other addictive disorders in the process of rehabilitation, disabled,
- single-parent families,
- inmates and ex-inmates,
- immigrants and ethnic minorities,
- people fleeing war conflicts, natural disasters, etc. seeking asylum,
- women with difficulties for access to employment, victims of gender violence, divorced / separated people without resources and unemployed people elderly)
Reinforcing the link between active and passive employment policies.
- Aids from each regional government.
In the case of Catalonia and for WISE:
- accompaniment of people at risk of exclusion by insertion companies.
It subsidizes the hiring by insertion companies of technical support persons in insertion or production, in order to improve the professional qualification and employability of workers in the insertion process. - Incentives for hiring people at risk of social exclusion by insertion companies.
It subsidizes the hiring by insertion companies of people who are in a serious risk situation of social exclusion accredited by social services or who receive the minimum insertion income / Guaranteed citizenship income, for a minimum period of three months continued hiring.
Take into account that WISEs do not hire disabled people, just people at risck of social exclusion.
The aids for Sheltered Workplaces for people with disabilities are higher.
- Indefinite contract type: Annual amount: Bonus of 600 euros.
- Temporary contract type: Annual amount: Bonus of 500 euros.
- Conversion of permanent contract to Annual contract Annual amount: 650 euros.
- Duration: Indefinite Contract and Conversion: 4 years. Temporary contract: during the term of the contract. Regulations: Law 43/2006
Coming from an insertion company
- Indefinite contract type: Annual amount: Discount of 1,650 euros during the first year. 600 euros the second, third and fourth year.
- Temporary contract type: Annual amount: Discount of 1,650 euros during the first year. 500 euros the second, third and fourth year.
Duration: 4 years. Validity of the measure: Indefinite. Regulations: Law 43/2006
Contracts formalized by insertion companies for people registered as job seekers under 30 or 35 with disabilities:
- Annual amount: Bonus of 1,650 euros.
- Duration: 3 years for an indefinite contract or during the term of the contract for temporary contracts.
- Validity of the measure: Indefinite.
- Regulations: Law 44/2007 and Law 5/2011
Contracts formalized by insertion companies for people registered as job seekers over 30 years of age:
- Annual amount: Bonus of 850 euros.
- Duration: 3 years for an indefinite contract or during the term of the contract for temporary contracts.
- Validity of the measure: Indefinite.
- Regulations: Law 5/2011
3.2 Quota system for employmet of disabled workers in Spain
In recent years there has been a policy shift towards the improvement of employability and the labour inclusion of people at the expense of passive and income support policies.[1]
Measures for the labour inclusion of people with disabilities in Spain can be grouped into three different categories:
- The first are aimed at fostering integration in the mainstream labour market thanks to the 2% reservation quota in companies with more than 50 employees, as established by law, together with other financial incentives for hiring or entrepreneurship and other support and guidance actions.
- The second category is through their integration at special employment centres.
- The third is focused on easing the transition from sheltered employment to ordinary employment, mainly through financial incentives for the hiring firms.[2]
An assessment of these measures for the period considered yields a positive balance: the employment quota of people with disabilities increased to 3% and 2% in the public and the private sectors, respectively. Further, almost one third of the total employment of people with disabilities (35% men and 15% women) benefits from subsidies and reductions in employers’ Social Security contributions. This feature, together with the importance of public ‘sheltered employment’, accounts for the higher job stability of people with disabilities with regard to other groups of the active population.
Social and Employment Policies in Spain – In-Depth Analysis – European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs 2017
[1] Social and Employment Policies in Spain – In-Depth Analysis – European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs 2017
[2] idem
The LISMI’s Law 13/1982, of April 7, on the Social Integration of the disabled people, by which all Spanish companies or companies established here, whose workforce is bigger than 50 workers, must have a “reserve quote in favor of people with disabilities “2% of the workforce”. This percentage is reserved for people with a disability equal to or bigger than 33%.
Compensation policies compensating enterprises for the lower productivity of the disadvantaged workers employed – eg for the hiring and training costs involved.
The General Disability Law (formerly LISMI – Law of Social Integration of the Disabled) establishes that all Spanish public and private companies whose workforce (total count of employees regardless of the type of hiring) is 50 or more workers must have a quota of reserve in favor of people with a disability equal to or greater than 33% corresponding to 2% of the workforce. This law intends, among other objectives, to promote and promote the labor integration of people with disabilities.
The law allows to replace the quota with aids to Special Work Centers or with contracting of services or buying commodities.
3.3 Supported employment
Are there any initiatives of supported employment in place in your country/ regions? If yes, how is supported employment provided? Through which activities and arrangements (e.g., individual placements in conventional enterprises, individualized training interventions, mobile work crews, small business arrangements)?
In Spain, supported employment is the group of actions of guidance and individualised accompaniment in the workplace, provided by specialised job coaches, which aim to facilitate the social and labour adaptation of workers with disabilities or with special difficulties of labour integration, in companies of the ordinary labour market in a similar conditions to the rest of the workers who perform equivalent jobs.
Workers must be hired by a company in the ordinary labour market under an indefinite or temporary contract of at least 6 months.
These companies will be allowed the benefits established in the current regulations on the hiring of workers with disabilities.
In the event that the disabled worker hired comes from the staff of a Special Employment Centre, he/she will be placed on voluntary leave of absence from that Centre.
The following entities may promote supported employment projects and be beneficiaries of the corresponding subsidies:
- Associations, foundations and other non-profit entities that sign the corresponding collaboration agreement with the company that is going to hire the workers with disabilities to which the employment with support is going to be provided.
- Special Employment Centres, which sign a collaboration agreement with the company that is going to hire disabled workers from the staff of the same centre or from other special employment centres.
- Companies in the ordinary labour market, including self-employed workers, who hire workers with disabilities who are beneficiaries of these actions, provided that they have specialised job coaches on their staff.
The supported employment actions will have a duration of between 6 months and 1 year, extendable for a further year.
However, in the case of people with cerebral paralysis, people with mental illness or people with intellectual disabilities with a recognised degree of disability equal to or greater than 33%, the maximum period of 2 years may be extended for up to 6 more months.
The subsidies established will be used to finance labour and social security costs generated during the period of development of the supported employment project, derived from the hiring of job coaches. This hiring may have been carried out either during the development of the project or before the project starts.
The amount of these subsidies will be 6,600 euros per year for each worker with cerebral paralysis, mental illness or intellectual disability, with a recognised degree of disability equal to or greater than 65%.
4,000 euros per year for each worker with cerebral paralysis, mental illness or intellectual disability, with a recognised degree of disability equal to or greater than 33% and less than 65%.
2,500 euros per year for each worker with a physical or sensory disability with a recognised degree of disability equal to or greater than 65% and in the case of deaf and hearing impaired workers with a recognised degree of disability equal to or greater than 33%.
These subsidies will be reduced proportionally according to the duration of the contract of each disabled worker, as well as according to their working day in the event that the contract is part-time, and will be granted for maximum periods of one year, extendable under the terms established in article 5.2 of the aforementioned Royal Decree.
