Sheltered employment for persons with disabilities

S employment is expanding in many countries with various types of institutions offering an increasing number of positions to persons with disabilities who wish to work. The structures involved are also showing a growing desire for recognition as full participants in the economy and as employing higher professional standards. In fact, many providers of sheltered employment are now using management methods borrowed directly from the commercial world. Quality control procedures have been introduced in a number of countries, in order to obtain ISO 9000 certification and to compete on an equal footing with normal enterprises. However, such institutional structures have evolved in very diverse legal contexts ranging from general business law to the special provisions governing establishments with a therapeutic function. Given such contextual diversity, questions of the employment status and fundamental rights of the workers involved may — sometimes crudely — be overlooked. This article offers an overview of that particular aspect of sheltered employment. Two problems are particularly important in this sector. The first arises from the various concepts of sheltered employment. Does it provide workers with an occupation over the long term or can it constitute transitional employment on the way to entry or re-entry to unsheltered employment? The second question is an extension of the first in respect of the objectives of sheltered employment. Should the production of goods and services take priority over therapeutic or medical and social concerns? Are these dual objectives compatible? Clearly, there is very considerable inter-country variation in the definitions, limits, context and conditions applicable to sheltered employment and as a result in whether persons with disabilities are granted full employment status. It depends, for example, on whether the structure in question is governed by labour legislation or by legislation on health care and social policy. In fact this dual, differentiating approach was confirmed in a ruling by the European Court