PROFESSIONAL INCLUSION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN ROMANIA

Assistant Professor Ruxandra FoloştinăUniversity of Bucharest

Teacher Carmen Marilena ŞerbănescuSpecial School no. 7, Bucharest, Romania

I. The legal and institutional frame

One of the concerns of Romanian society regarding people with mental

retardation is represented by their total integration, the most emphasized aspect

being the educational one. In addition there is a little concern for adults having a

mental disability and their professional inclusion as a main aspect of their life

quality. Although in Romania, in the last two decades, there have been made

important steps for the normalization of life of disabled people (especially by

politics for promoting social protection and professional inclusion), they continue

to encounter significant barriers in their social inclusion. Professional inclusion is

a prerequisite in achieving social inclusion for the disabled people, promoting

equal opportunities and fully participation in the community life and thus their

independence. Unfortunately, the aspect of professional inclusion is in the most

cases the hardest to achieve, depending on various factors related to the person

itself but especially factors related to society and its mentalities (the actual socio-

economical conditions of our country, legislation, social attitudes etc.).

In the present paper, we propose to analyze the actual situation of labor

force participation in the case of people with disabilities (including those with

mental retardation), to analyze the legal frame regarding labor market

participation of people with disabilities, professional training and career guidance,

to analyze some aspects regarding professional education of teenagers / youth

with disabilities.

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In the educational system, the most important changes in the last years

are related to:

a) integration of children with disabilities in mainstream school with

differentiated / individualized / personalized support provided by a support

teacher and by educational and social services;

b) integration in the special needs educational system of children with severe

disabilities; their educational activities being based on individual educational

plan;

c) starting training various categories of teachers in inclusive education;

d) orientation of the teaching-learning-assessment process to updating and

developing the full potential of each child;

e) increasing the number of students with disabilities integrated into secondary

education, post-secondary and higher education;

f) rising the number of preschool children with disabilities integrated in

kindergartens and in day care centres;

g) starting guiding the education system to personal development and to social

inclusion of each child; to define and ensure a future for each graduated student

in terms of personal, professional and social inclusion.

The current movement in supporting school integration of children with

disabilities based on a positive approach model and inclusion strategies is an

important paradigm shift, with special implications in terms of eradication of

social exclusion and strengthening the independence of the disabled person.

Currently in Romania there are laws in accordance with the inalienable and non-

negotiable human rights, enshrined in the Constitution of Romania, in the

Convention of Human Rights, the EU acquis.

The most important Romanian laws regarding vocational training and career

guidance of children and youth with disabilities are:

- National Education Law – Law No.1 / 2011, published in the Official

Gazette no. 18 on 10 of January 2011;

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- Law no. 292 / 2011 – law on social assistance;

- Law no. 151 / 2010 deals with autism and specialized social services on

health and education for people with autistic disorders and associated

mental health disorders;

- Law no. 272 / 2004 regarding protection and promotion of child’s rights;

- Law no. 448 / 2006 (republished in 2008) regarding the protection and

promotion of the rights of the disabled people, published in the Official

Gazette, Part I no. 1006 of 18/12/2006;

- Law no. 76 / 2002 - (updated in 2004) regarding the unemployment

insurance system and issues concerning stimulating employment of the

disabled people;

- Law no.116 / 2002 on preventing and combating social exclusion;

- Law no. 487 / 2002 – the mental health law and the protection of people

with mental disorders.

All these policies comply with international principles and values of human

rights to which Romania adhered:

- Equalization of Opportunities for disabled people;

- Citizenship rights of the disabled people;

- School, professional and social inclusion ;

- Empowering the disabled people and their NGOs;

- Positive approach, policies and strategies based on the recognition of the

abilities and skills of children and adults with special needs;

- Non-discrimination principles;

- Normalization of life for people with disabilities.

In Romania there are several types of institutions dealing with training and

career guidance of students and youth with disabilities according to their special

needs and to the requirements of the labour market:

a. Educational institutions, coordinated by The Ministry of Education:

- special education units: special schools and special vocational schools

(usually - arts and crafts);

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- inclusive schools for preschool and school level in which students /

children with special needs receive educational support services provided

by a support teacher;

- “home school” for students who do not have the physical possibilities to go

to the nearest school ;

- Education to the “Hospital Bed”, education during hospitalization;

- Alternative Education provided by NGOs (e.g. after school, rehabilitation

centres).

b. Institutions involved in social protection, career guidance and labour

mediation:

- Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection – General Directorate

for the Protection of People with Disabilities;

- National Authority for child Protection (ANPDC);

- National Agency for Employment ( ANOFM ).

The main institutions involved in social protection, career guidance and labour

mediation of the disabled people are:

a. National Agency for Employment (ANOFM) with its local subordinate

agencies – County Agencies for Employment and Work (AJOFM) and

Employment and Work Agency of Bucharest (AMOFM). These are

legal institutions and public services aimed to increase the employability of

people in searching of a work, including career guidance and labour

mediation of people with disabilities. The main tasks of these institutions

are:

- information and career counseling;

- mediation of the work – activity that is done to put in touch employers with

people looking for a job, to establish a relationship between employee and

employers;

- professional training;

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- organization and provision (free or by paying a fee) of training services for the

unemployed people and other categories of beneficiaries as prescribed by the

law;

- advice and assistance for starting a self-employment activity or a business;

- supporting employment of people belonging to vulnerable groups.

b. Departments of Social Assistance and Child Protection, under the authority

of which operates the following committees: The Committee for Child

Protection, The Evaluation Committee of adults with disabilities and The Public

Services for assessment. The two committees diagnose the degree and the

type of disability of the children / adults with handicap.

c. Training Providers are legal entities (public or private) that can provide

training services according to international quality standards and legislation.

The training providers are :

- Regional Centers for Adult Training (CRFPA), subordinated to ANOFM, with

headquarters in several cities of the country;

- Centers for reorientation and reintegration for the unemployed in each County,

subordinated to AJOFM ;

- Other training providers authorized in the public and private area – different

businesses, enterprises and institutions, LLC and SA with a specific activity ;

- NGOs, including those of people with disabilities.

Social care is separated from health care in Romania. The Ministry of Health is

responsible for regulating and implementing health policies. Psychiatric facilities

are under this ministry, but not facilities for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Hence, the Ministry of Health is responsible for the assistance provided in centers

for persons with mental health problems but not for persons with intellectual

disabilities. All social care is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Labor,

Family and Social Protection and local authorities. Thus, this is where protection

and services for persons with disabilities lies. This division of responsibilities is

however not always clear in practice since there are many institutions with a mix of

persons with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities.

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II. The situation of labour force participation in the case of people with

disabilities

Subordinated to the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection is the

General Directorate for the Protection of the People with Disabilities (GDPPD). It is

the specialised body of the central public administration which coordinates

activities related to the special protection and promoting of the rights of people with

disabilities. GDPPD develops policies, strategies and standards, monitors

enforcement of regulations and controls the special protection activities for people

with disabilities. It has the coordinating role. To actually provide the services is the

responsibility of the local authorities. However, GDPPD sometimes finance parts of

projects.

GDPPD is only responsible for adults. Protection and services for children are

under the National Authority for Child Protection and Adoption (ANPCA), which is

also subordinated to the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection.

To actually provide the social care is the responsibility of the local authorities;

the local councils on municipality level and in Bucharest sector level. Each local

council has a General Department of Social Assistance and Child Protection (GD).

This department is responsible for all types of social assistance and it is their

responsibility to provide the services which the law obliges. It is not responsible for

any kind of education, this lies under the Ministry of Education.

Disabilities in Romania are classified in ten different types; physic, somatic,

auditory, visual, mental, psychic, associated, HIV/Aids, rare diseases and deaf-

blind. Thus, the term “mental disability” is used for what in many other countries is

referred to as “intellectual disability”.

The term “associated disability” is used for persons with two or more

disabilities. It can be any combination of disabilities which means that some

persons with intellectual disabilities are also in this category.

Disability levels are classified according to IQ levels in line with International

Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) elaborated by the World Health

Organisation (WHO). There is another classification elaborated by WHO

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which complements ICD-10 and also takes contextual factors into account,

but this is not used in Romania. The levels mild, moderate, severe and

profound are used. The term “severe” is however often used as including also

persons with profound disabilities. This is the case in the law 448/2006 for

example.

According to the General Directorate for the Protection of the People with

Disabilities of the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection (GDPPD,

M.L.F.S.P., 2011) the total number of disabled people on March 31, 2011 was

691.482 (approx. 4 % out of the general population of Romania), while in the

European Union the percent is being considered around 10%. This situation

can be explained due to the different norms applied for establishing the degree

of handicap in Romania, mainly based on medical criteria. Out of the total

number of disabled people in Romania, 674.431 (97,5%) live in family care

and / or live independently (non-institutionalized) and 17.051 (2,5 %) live in

residential institutions of social assistance for adults with disabilities

coordinated by the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection through the

General Directorate for the Protection of the People with Disabilities.

Graphic 1. The number of people with disabilities in March 31, 2011

(The number of people with disabilities according to M.L.F.S.P – GDPPD, 2011)

According to the same source, on 31 of March 2011, they were 26.530

employed people with disabilities.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF PERSONS

691482

NON-INSTITUTIONALISED

674431

INSTITUTIONALISED1

17051

The situation of employment for people having a disability, depending on the

type of disability, out of the total number of the employed ones (26.530), will be

also presented in Table 1.

Tabel 1. The percentages depending on the type of handicap, out of the total number of the

employed adults with disabilities and the percentages of the employed, out of the total

employed adults with disabilities

Type of disability The percent out of the total adults with disabilities

The percent out of the total employed adults with disabilities

physical 19,34% 22,62%

somatic 20,51% 37,66%

hearing 3,56% 12,56%

vision 20,07% 12,21%

mental 16,43% 3,52%

psychic 12,95% 5,65%

associate 5,42% 3,16%

HIV / AIDS 0,84% 0,6%

rare disease 0,81% 1,7%

deaf-blind 0,08% 0,33%

Out of the total number of adults, the highest percent is for the ones having a

somatic disability, followed by the ones with visual, physical, mental and psychic

deficiency. The lowest incidence was recorded in the case of people having deaf-

blindness, followed by the ones with rare diseases, HIV / AIDS, hearing impairment

and associate disorders. We can notice that the best situation of employment, out

of the total employed, is in the case of somatic deficiency, followed by the ones

with physical, hearing and visual deficiency.

As we can notice the access to employment for persons with disabilities is very

limited. Assisted employment, which has proven successful in many other

countries for persons with disabilities, is a new thing for Romania. There are a few

places in the public sector being offered, but they are very few.

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For a person with a disability who just graduated, there is a benefit that a company

can get during the first period of an employment. There is then an obligation to

keep the person for one or two years. Working places which have more than 30%

of the employees with a disability are eligible for tax reductions.

There is a law which says that in every working place with more than 30

employees there has to be at least 4% with a disability. If they do not have this

they have to pay half of the minimum salaries of this number of persons as a fine.

Instead of employing 4%, a working place can buy things produced by persons

with disabilities for the equal amount as the fine.

The commissions which evaluate disabilities also evaluate the capacity to work.

The law 448/2006 gives the right to keep parts of the benefits also if receiving a

salary. But many persons with disabilities do not know about this right.

III. The legal frame regarding career guidance, professional training ad

labour market participation of people with disabilities

Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection has developed the National

Strategy on the social protection, integration and inclusion of people with

disabilities in the period 2006-2013. It has the subheading Equal opportunities for

people with disabilities - towards a non-discriminatory society. The goal of the

strategy is to ensure the full exertion by all people with disabilities of their rights

and fundamental liberties, with a view to enhancing the quality of life.

The National strategy includes an action plan with most goals set to 2013. The

mission is:

By 2013, people with disabilities shall benefit from real rights and opportunities,

with a view of enhancing the quality of personal life.

The strategy proposes as ways to increase employment among people with

disabilities the following lines of action:

Provision of training school for the disabled person, regardless of where he

is, including assistant teachers;

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Increasing the importance of the assessment of the skills and, especially, of

the social skills training;

Implementation, diversification and financial support programs for career

guidance of people with disabilities;

Providing training for occupations needed in the field of disability and

introduction of new occupations in The Classification of Occupations in

Romania.

Granting facilities to the employers in the professional inclusion process of

people with disabilities is necessary;

Better access to work, education, culture, entertainment and public transport

is extremely important for the disabled people to assert in the life of the

community;

Involvement in decision making of people with disabilities in such manner

that the motto “Nothing about us without us” be observed.

The strategy emphasizes the necessity of an integrated view over

handicap, so that the needs of the person with disabilities to be followed properly

in all the policies and national development programs, especially in those related

to: housing and transport, adequate access to physical environment and

information, education, career orientation, employment, access to culture,

tourism and free time.

Particularly important in terms of career guidance and employment of

people with disabilities, this strategy is based on the following fundamental

principles:

- respecting the rights and the dignity of people with disabilities based on

the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

- preventing and combating discrimination;

- equal opportunities for disabled people;

- equal treatment – absence of any direct or indirect discrimination based

on religion or belief, disability, age, sexual orientation, employment, as set

out in European Council Directive 2000/78/CE of 27 November 2000;

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- community empowerment – community is responsible for promoting the

rights of the disabled people and for creating, developing and

diversification of the support services necessary to ensure a good quality

of life;

- “adapting” society to the needs of the disabled people by implementation

of the appropriate measures so that the disabled person to assume the

obligations of citizenship;

- Integrated approach so that protection, integration and social inclusion of

people with disabilities to be included in all national policies: social,

educational, employment, free time, access to information.

Regarding the terminology used, The strategy specifies that in using terms or

in the process of introducing or defining new terms, it will follow elimination of

the discriminatory tendencies and the risk of stigmatization by inducing

negative connotations. It is preferable to avoid using terms as uneducated,

unrecoverable or unable to work in all administrative, legal and official

documents.

In December 2006 the new Law on the protection and fostering of the

disabled people’s rights, number 448/2006 was approved. This law is based

on the national strategy and is responding to the principles established there.

It has also led to new secondary laws and in practice all the laws for adults

with disabilities were changed. Law 448/2006 stipulates the rights for persons

with disabilities in a wide range of areas such as housing, healthcare,

education, employment and social benefits. Below are some examples of

what the law stipulates:

Social services for people with disabilities shall be developed and adjusted

according to each person’s individual need.

People with disabilities shall have free and equal access to all forms of

education, regardless of their age, in accordance with the type and degree of

the disability, and their educational needs.

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Any disabled person who wants to become employed or re-employed shall

have the access to vocational assessment and guidance, regardless of

his/her age and regardless of the type and degree of the disability.

Disabled persons shall have the right to work and make revenues in

accordance with the labor legislation and the special provisions of this law.

Romania developed minimum standards for social services for persons with

disabilities which have to be followed. There are set of standards for

residential services, sheltered living (an independent living with minimum

support), day centers, respite centers, community services at home and

personal assistance. They are very detailed, for residential services there are

thirty standards, each with several subheadings. Examples of standards for

residential services are maximum three persons per bedroom, individual

plans and programs have to exist and there has to be access to several

specialists such as a doctor, psychologist, physiotherapist and nurse.

The specializations offered by the special vocational schools of arts and

crafts for youth with mental retardation are:

Tabel 2. Specializations and qualifications of special vocational schools for youth with

mental retardation in Romania

Nr.

crt.

Specialization Qualification

1. Construction Construction worker:

painter, paper hanger

2. Mechanical Worker locksmith

3. Manufacture of wood products Carpentry worker

4. Food industry Food worker,Worker in milling and

baking

5. Construction Worker in knitwear and

garments

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6. Garments Worker in milling and

baking

7. Tourism Hotel worker

Most graduates have found jobs in the professions that they have been

qualified, which means that the special vocational schools adapt their

curricula according to the labour market requirements.

Inclusive employment is probably the most challenging process. There are

still many barriers: the lack of environmental accessibility and communication,

the lack of national policies in favor of inclusive employment, prejudices of

employers, a lack of inclusive education in the past, a lack of social skills of

people with mental disabilities.

Stigma and prejudice are still widespread in Romania, so the attitudes of the

co-workers can be hostile and show a lack of respect and sensitivity towards

people with mental disabilities.

References:

ANPH - www.anph.ro

Cretu, V. (2009) – Training students and young people with disabilities in relation

to their support needs and labor market requirements. Institutions, successful examples,

proposals, Editura Universitara, Bucuresti;

National Authority for People with Disabilities: National strategy on social

protection, integration and social inclusion of disabled people – equal opportunities for

persons with disabilities: towards a non-discriminatory society 2006 – 2013.

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