Breathe
By Barbara Anderson
One of the goals of Luisa María Alcalde Luján's administration at the head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) was labor inclusion, for which she formally presented her National Labor and Employment Program for People with Disabilities 2021-2024 two years ago. In the presentation his position was clear: "labor inclusion for people with disabilities is very complex. They experience discrimination due to prejudice and lack of information regarding their condition. Employers erroneously assume that hiring them implies high levels of absenteeism and high costs in adapting to the job. This context makes it difficult for them to find formal jobs and, as a result, prevents them from improving their job skills and employability.
However, the results of his efforts at the federal level do not move any statistics in a positive way, nor has he left a deep foundation in this regard.
In his activity report for all of 2022 (first balance of his Program) the figures are less than modest. Now, now in charge of the Ministry of the Interior, replacing Adán Augusto López, there are fewer opportunities left in his former portfolio, with little more than a year to go before the end of the six-year term.
Last year, the Ministry of Labor advised 250 companies throughout the country on labor inclusion, many of which were awarded the Distinction in Labor Responsibility (DRL), but only managed to place 3,430 workers with disabilities in employment (1,545 women and 1,885 men).
Is this too little or too much?
These 250 companies represent a miniscule percentage of the 4.9 million registered commercial establishments in the country.
According to the 2020 Census data, there are 20,838,108 Mexicans with a disability or limitation. Of these, 2.4 million are of working age (38 percent) and only 30 percent are employed (720 thousand).
In other words, there are 1.68 million people with disabilities outside the economically active population. Put in context, the Program launched by Luisa María Alcalde allowed that only 0.2 percent of those who live with a disability and are looking for a job were able to get it thanks to her management at the STPS.
Another labor inclusion option is the generation of experience, a stronghold of another program within its (now former) Secretariat: the Programa Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro (PJCF).
This plan promotes the incorporation of young people between 18 and 29 years of age who are not studying and not working, in economic activities through their training in work centers that participate in the Program and where the federal government itself is responsible for the interns' salaries, which are equivalent to 5,258 pesos per month for 12 months, and IMSS coverage.
If we evaluate only 2022, last year this Program paid the salaries of 214,788 young people, of which only 3,688 confirmed having a disability (1,862 men and 1,826 women).
This means that in this first employment plan, only 1.7 percent of the beneficiaries were young people living with some living condition.
Another lackluster action by the Secretary of Labor was its strategy Abriendo Espacios, from the Employment Support Program (PAE), which advertised counseling for people with disabilities who were looking for a job. Each of those interested could apply for its "Valpar Evaluations," which identify the skills of people with disabilities and help them better sell their profile to private companies.
In all of 2022, 16,103 "job seekers with disabilities" (sic) were evaluated, of which only 2,804 were placed in jobs.
Laws that are a dead letter
In addition to its own programs and plans, the STPS promoted reforms to the Federal Labor Law, one of them directly related to labor inclusion. On February 22, 2022, the Senate finally approved a chapter within that reform stating that "companies with more than 20 workers must have at least five percent of positions occupied by people with disabilities." "The law will regulate issues of hiring, training, education and professionalization of the workforce with some disability."
What has happened so far? Nothing. This (like many other legislations) does not even set a deadline for companies to comply with this mandate, nor does it present how and how often the STPS should carry out audits of companies to verify that they are complying with this mandate of labor inclusion.
In the latest edition of the National Survey on Discrimination (ENADIS) 2022, 33.8 percent of the population over 12 years old with disabilities in our country was discriminated against. This is higher than 2017 (+ 37 percent) where 24.6 percent of pcd stated having suffered some act against them.
Among the three main reasons for which they have been victims of discrimination is precisely the lack of job opportunities. In 2022, 44.9 percent of the population aged 12 years and older with a disability perceived that they were discriminated against a lot when looking for a job.
This column was published on the Yo También disability news site.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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