Disabled: 40% companies reach quota, but thousands still remain unemployed

40% of eligible Maltese private companies are now meeting the disability employment quota, yet the national disability commission warned that over 3,000 people with disabilities remain out of work. 

The Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) told MaltaToday that 342 of the private businesses on the island who employ over 20 people are now meeting the quota. This is a significant increase from August, when a meagre 13% of eligible businesses fulfilled the quota. 

MaltaToday was unable to obtain statistics for the public sector at the time of writing, but national disability commission (KNPD) chairman Oliver Scicluna estimates that its quota fulfilment rate is around 75%. 

However, despite the rapid progress, Scicluna warns that as many as 3,400 employable people with disability remain out of a job. If true, this would rubbish any concerns that there are not enough people with disabilities in the country for every business to fulfil their mandatory quota. 

“Would the Archbishop rather have people with disability continue living at Dar tal-Providenza or would he like to see them become empowered through employment?”

“Around 380 people with disabilities are currently registered on the ETC’s unemployment register, but from our records I would estimate that there are at the very least another 3,000 who are capable of working but who have lost heart that they would ever find a job,” he said. “I know people who have given up trying to find a job after 16 years on the dole, and parents who have withdrawn their children with intellectual disabilities from the register as they have lost hope.” 

In an attempt to boost the disability employment rate, the government in 2014 decided to enforce a 1960s law that obliges companies that employ over 20 people to maintain a disabled staff quota of at least 2%. 

Employers who fail to abide by this quota this year will be fined €1,200 for every disabled person they should be employing. The annual sanction will double to €2,400 next year and is capped at an annual €10,000 per company.  

Tax credits of up to €4,500 were also offered to businesses who employ disabled persons, while employers are now entitled to the reimbursement by government of 50% of their disabled employees’ wage, capped at €5,000. 

The KNPD chairman is all too aware that the enforcement of this old law has its flipside in the form of tokenism – that employers are likely to employ people with disabilities simply for the sake of avoiding the fine. 

“A tokenism culture will be dangerous, and we will constantly monitor the employment situations of people with disabilities, to ensure that they receive equal treatment, support and in-work training. If they don’t, then we’ll strive to place it on the national agenda.”

He insists that employers shouldn’t view their hiring of disabled staff as an act of charity, but as a win-win situation. 

“Half of the KNPD’s staff are people with disabilities, even though we are only legally obliged to maintain the 2% quota,” he said. “I speak from experience when I say that people with disabilities, even mental ones, can be just as capable in the workplace as non-disabled ones.”  

Indeed, he bullishly insists that pretty much every company that employs staff on a long-term basis can accommodate people with disabilities.

“Some businesses, as well as the police, the armed forces, and the public health sector, have said that the nature of their work precludes them from hiring disabled people. However, where there’s a will there’s a way, and I’m sure that they also have administrative positions that can be occupied by people with disabilities.” 

Shock at Archbishop’s opposition to quota

The enforced quota has, perhaps expectedly, found opposition from the Malta Employers’ Association. Yet it has surprisingly also been criticised by Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who recently warned that fines will “frustrate employers rather than address the problem”. 

Oliver Scicluna said that the Archbishop’s stance came as a shock to him, given the extensive work that the Church has carried out to help people with disabilities over the years.   

“Would the Archbishop rather have people with disability continue living at Dar tal-Providenza or would he like to see them become empowered through employment?” he questioned. “I’ve spoken to a lot of priests who disagreed with the Archbishop’s stance.”