Disability employment fells due to Covid-19
Employment rate of persons with disabilities has fallen 15 to 20 per cent due to Covid-19 situation, a recent survey by the Centre for Disabled Persons’ Rights revealed.
“The latest wave of Covid-19 outbreak since April has forced many businesses to downsize their workforce or even shut down, which has greatly affected the employment of persons with disabilities,” said Samrit Chaphirom, president of the centre on Wednesday. “The government must immediately provide assistance to people in this vulnerable group, as having a job is not only a source of income, but also helps them maintain the dignity of being able to provide for their family.”
Samrit further added that under the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Act, a business with more than 100 employees must hire one disabled person per 100 non-disabled staff, or they will have to contribute to the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Fund instead.
“From the statistics of all companies with more than 100 employees in Thailand, they must hire a total of 55,000 disabled persons to comply with this law,” he said. “However, in reality only around 30,000 disabled persons are being hired, while some companies have chosen to contribute to the fund instead, which does not help generating sustainable income for disabled persons.”
“We would like to urge entrepreneurs to consider hiring more disabled persons in your workforce, which will be beneficial for your business as the cost of hiring persons with disabilities is tax deductible,” he added. “Furthermore, nowadays many disabled persons have completed vocational training and can perform at the same level as normal persons in some capacities such as call centre staff, customer service staff, accountant, secretary, administrative officer and sales representative.”