Committee for Labor, Employment and Social Protection: the issue of effective employment of people with disabilities is under special control.

The issue of effective employment of people with disabilities is under special control of the Committee on Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee.

The legislation provides for additional measures aimed at ensuring their employment. In addition, the legislation guarantees people with disabilities the right to work, establishes a ban on discrimination in the labor sphere due to disability, and also contains specific measures to assist in employment.

People with disabilities can earn money by realizing their professional potential, feel needed by society, and gain self-confidence.

Seeking employment through the public employment service has certain advantages. In addition to basic services, additional guarantees are provided for people with disabilities:

• employment in reserved jobs,
• labor adaptation,
• priority referral for training with payment of accommodation and travel expenses, accompanied employment,
• issuance of subsidies for self-employment.

There are options. All services are free of charge.

There are 57.4 thousand citizens with disabilities living in the Vitebsk region, more than 25 thousand people are between the ages of 18 and the generally established retirement age, of whom 14.2 thousand have employment recommendations. Of the people with disabilities who have employment recommendations, 6.2 thousand people are employed, or 43.7 percent.

In order to involve people with disabilities in labor activities, conditions have been created in the region for their vocational training, financial support for organizing entrepreneurial activities, adaptation to labor activities, and the creation of specialized new jobs.

The measures taken allow for an annual increase in the proportion of employed people with disabilities among those in need of employment. More than 50 percent of people with disabilities who apply to the employment service find their desired job.

In January–November 2021, 375 people with disabilities were registered as unemployed. Taking into account those registered as of January 1, 2021, 465 people with disabilities needed employment.

In 11 months of 2021, 243 people with disabilities were employed, including 106 disabled individuals employed under the established quota.

The proportion of employed disabled individuals out of those needing employment was 52.3 percent, which is 8.9 percentage points higher than in the same period of 2020 (43.4 percent). In 2019, the indicator was 40.6 percent, in 2018 – 38 percent, in 2017 – 31.3 percent, and in 2016 – 27.3 percent.

In January–November 2021:

• 13 people with disabilities were directed to vocational training;
• 34 participated in paid public works;
• 2 received financial support in the form of subsidies for organizing entrepreneurial activities.

Annually, almost 50 people with disabilities are employed within the framework of adaptation to work activities. In the current year, adaptation to work activities has been organized for 43 people with disabilities. Essentially, this is an internship: a disabled person consolidates practical skills and learns to interact with other people. A fixed-term employment contract with a disabled person is concluded for a period of 6 months to one year.

* Employers organizing adaptation to work activities for people with disabilities receive full compensation from the state for the labor costs of disabled employees. They can also count on reimbursement for expenses incurred in acquiring equipment, materials, and special clothing.

In the current year, the adaptation of persons with disabilities is organized for the following professions: labor therapy instructor, club leader, computer graphics operator, copying and duplicating machine operator, radio electronic equipment fitter-assembler, secretary, client service specialist, seamstress, producer of artistic wooden products, warehouse keeper, supply agent, and others.

In 2021, in order to maximize assistance in the employment of unemployed persons with disabilities, work continued on organizing supported employment for people with disabilities.

More than 1000 unemployed persons with disabilities who have employment recommendations have been informed in various ways about the employment assistance measures provided by the labor, employment, and social protection authorities of the region.

As a result of the work carried out, 374 persons with disabilities expressed their consent to employment assistance, of which 313 subsequently registered as unemployed; all were offered supported employment.

If the person with a disability agrees, the employment service organizes their individual support:

• preliminary interaction with the employer, joint visit to the employer and obtaining preliminary results of the interview
• monitoring the employment activities of persons with disabilities for 3 months after employment.

Providing such assistance to persons with disabilities is effective, ensuring a high percentage of their employment. Thus, in January-November 2021, 40 unemployed persons with disabilities agreed to be accompanied to employers, of whom 37 people were employed as a result of the support, or 92.5 percent of those who agreed.

Annually, new specialized workplaces for persons with disabilities are created in the Vitebsk region. The financing of employers' expenses for the acquisition of equipment that creates safe working conditions, taking into account labor protection, safety, and industrial sanitation norms and requirements, the use of which in workplaces will allow persons with disabilities to perform work and functional duties in accordance with the conclusion of the medico-rehabilitation expert commission, is carried out from the budget of the state non-budgetary social protection fund of the population of the Republic of Belarus.

Long-term cooperation has been established with enterprises of Public Associations of Disabled Persons "Belarusian Association of the Deaf", "Belarusian Society of the Visually Impaired": PUP "Nit" (Orsha), PUP "Galant" (Vitebsk), PUP "Elekt" (Vitebsk), which have proven themselves as reliable partners strictly fulfilling contractual obligations.

In the period from 2002 to 2020, 239 new specialized workplaces for persons with disabilities were created.

In 2021, it is planned to create at least 9 new specialized workplaces for persons with disabilities.