Disabled People Still Unwelcome at Workplace: South Korea
There are two million physically and mentally disabled people in the
country, yet many businesses are reluctant to hire them. Especially,
large corporations are more inclined to evade employing them.
According to the Ministry of Labor Monday, 89,546 disabled people were
working for 20,125 private companies with more than 50 staff as of the
end of last year, which makes their employment rate 1.54 percent of he
total. This is less than the government required 2 percent quarter, but
the figure has increased from 1.37 percent a year ago, ministry
spokeswoman Lee Bu–yong said.
However, it was larger companies who were more reluctant to hire
disabled people. While companies with 50–200 staff had a 1.69 percent
disabled employment rate, those with more than 1,000 staff marked only 1.
3 percent.
Of those employed, 81.5 percent were considered suffering a physical
disability while the remainder were categorized as mentally disabled persons.
"Those with cerebral palsy or other serious–level diseases work well in
the information–technology field. According to the ministry, the so–
called mentally disabled also work well in service industries such as
fast food chains. Many people think these people cannot do certain
things or that they require too much care, but in fact, they can do
pretty much anything anyone else can,'' ministry official Lee said.
According to the Employment Promotion and Vocational Rehabilitation for
Disabled Person Act, public organizations and private companies with
more than 50 employees must have disabled people account for at least 2
percent of their staff. Those with more than 100 members who do not
follow this act are subject to a fine.
The Labor Ministry also announced that those who establish an affiliate
company to hire severely disabled people will receive 1 billion won
($1 million) in subsidies. The names of those public organizations and
companies with more than 300 staff but no disabled employees will be
released in August.
Source: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr
Back to News