Centre for Civic Education (CCE) expresses full support for the Association of Youth with Disabilities of Montenegro (UMHCG) and other organizations advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities (PWD), recognizing their comments on the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities as entirely justified. It is unacceptable for such important legal changes to be made without adequate analysis and consultations with organizations that best understand the real needs of PWD.
We share the concern of PWD organizations that the proposed changes pose a serious threat to their rights. Of particular concern is the reduction of subsidies for employers who hire them, directly discouraging the employment of PWD and undermining the spirit of the law. Data from the Employment Agency indicate that PWD make up almost 30% of the total unemployed population. The adoption of these changes would further increase the unemployment rate among PWD and deepen their social exclusion and economic insecurity.
The improvement of the support system for labour market integration is lacking because the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Dialogue is wrongly focusing on the increase in the number of employers who use subsidies. Based on this flawed premise, the law amendments aim to reduce these “costs,” instead of addressing potential abuses through improved oversight mechanisms and adequate sanctions.
What is particularly concerning is how these amendments are being made – the process is neither inclusive, nr transparent, nor based on relevant data and analysis. The public consultation was organized in the shortest possible time, with serious limitations in the accessibility of materials and information for PWD, effectively excluding a key stakeholder from the process.
CCE calls on the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Dialogue to withdraw this draft from the procedure and open a quality dialogue with PWD organizations, while also annulling the Regulation on the Conditions, Criteria, and Procedure for the Realization of Subsidy Rights, which was adopted without consultation with relevant stakeholders and contradicts the principles of social justice.
The state must not adopt legal solutions that undermine the dignity and rights of persons with disabilities. Instrad, it must take concrete steps to ensure their genuine inclusion and equal opportunities in the labour market. As a signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the state is obligated to progressively enhance the social, economic, and cultural rights of this population, rather than restricting them. The mere fact that PWD organizations were inadequately involved in drafting the law amendments is enough to make it problematic, as it disregards the voices of those who best understand the barriers to employment and how to create effective and applicable solutions to overcome them.
Ivana Matanović, Programme Associate