Trade Unions and Workers with Disabilities: Promoting Decent Work, Combating Discrimination

Although much has been done by the ILO to protect and promote the human rights of people with disabilities and to fight with them for equal opportunity and equal treatment in society and at the workplace, much more needs to be done. The International Labour Office has, since its very inception in 1919, considered that disabled people have equal rights to decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity, and has worked to promote these rights through its international labour standards, its research and publications, and its advocacy and technical cooperation activities. Trade unions have also been strong advocates of the integration of those people with "different capacities" at the workplace and in society. Many disabled people who can work and wish to work are unable to do so, for reasons linked to the physical and social environment, and the mistaken assumptions made about their work capacity. Both the ILO and its constituents should and could do better. And it would be wrong to take improvements achieved so far for granted. Fierce competition in global markets may have a negative impact on the performance of companies in integrating workers with disabilities. That should not be the case, the will require special efforts at the workplace. Governments' and societies' legitimate concerns over the sustainability of social protection systems, including long fought-for provisions to support people with disabilities, may also lead to wrong solutions for real problems. That should not be the case either. Vision, sensitivity and knowledge are required if real progress is to be made. In fact, the fight for integration, dignity and equal treatment of the disabled will have to be waged on many fronts in the future. There will be no place for complacency. As ILO expert Barbara Murray put it in her contribution to this issue of Labour Education (see page 1), "Most disabled people continue to occupy marginalized positions in their societies, deprived of the rights to education, training and employment enjoyed by their non-disabled fellow-citizens and frequently living in poverty".