"The Ministry of Manpower continues to strengthen our efforts in involving and fulfilling the employment rights for workers with disabilities by encouraging the government, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Regional Owned Enterprises (BUMD), and private companies to employ people with disabilities," the minister stated at the national award ceremony for private companies and BUMN that employ people with disabilities, Tuesday.
Fauziyah explained that Article 53 of Law Number 8 of 2016 stipulates that the government, regional governments, BUMN, and BUMD were required to employ persons with disabilities constituting at least two percent of the total employee force.
Meanwhile, private companies are required to employ people with disabilities to comprise one percent of the total number of their employees.
Based on data from the Mandatory Employment Report in 2021, only 588 companies had employed 4,554 people with disabilities out of a total of 543 thousand employees registered in the system belonging to the Ministry of Manpower.
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For state-owned companies, only 72 companies have employed 1,271 persons with disabilities.
In fact, based on the Ministry of Manpower's data on February 2022, disabled people constituted some 16.5 million of the working-age population.
Fauziyah also remarked that people with disabilities were one of the groups to have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The vulnerability of people with disabilities at work was caused by the low level of education, limited access to job vacancies, the high cost of living for various additional needs, such as hearing aids and health care, as well as low income and high poverty rates.
In particular, the minister highlighted about the gender perspective in the vulnerability of the disabled workforce, with women with disabilities facing greater barriers than men.
Fauziyah addressed that achieving the target of meeting the quota for people with disabilities at work requires effort and commitment from the government, regional governments, BUMN, BUMD, and private companies.
"We want this commitment to be supported by the government, regional governments, BUMN, BUMD, and the private sector," she added.
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Translator: Prisca Triferna V, Resinta S
Editor: Suharto
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