[Nfb-or] Fw: [Nfb-announce] RESOLUTION 2011-17 Regarding the WorkforceInvestment Act Reauthorization

[Jerry Hathaway]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Freeh,Jessica (by way of David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>)" 
<JFreeh at nfb.org>
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Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2011 10:50 AM
Subject: [Nfb-announce] RESOLUTION 2011-17 Regarding the WorkforceInvestment 
Act Reauthorization


> RESOLUTION 2011-17
> Regarding the Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization
> Proponent:
>
> WHEREAS, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
> Pensions has distributed language for the reauthorization of the
> Workforce Investment Act including a proposed Section 511 of Title V
> (the Rehabilitation Act), which would provide for employment of
> people with significant disabilities at wages below the federally
> mandated minimum wage; and
>
> WHEREAS, the proposed language of Section 511 would be a tacit
> endorsement of the subminimum wage provision found in Section 14(c)
> of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and its antiquated contention
> that people with disabilities cannot be competitively employed; and
>
> WHEREAS, this language links the Rehabilitation Act, which was
> established to assist people with disabilities in obtaining
> competitive integrated employment, with Section 14(c) of the FLSA,
> which is based on the false premise that people with disabilities can
> not be competitively employed and therefore can be paid subminimum wages; 
> and
>
> WHEREAS, the language in Section 511 that defines what steps a
> vocational rehabilitation counselor must take before steering a
> client into subminimum-wage employment is intended to prevent youth
> with disabilities from being tracked into subminimum-wage jobs, but
> is likely instead to track clients into subminimum-wage employment; and
>
> WHEREAS, language in Section 511 asserts that employers holding a
> certificate that allows them to pay subminimum wages can also serve
> as training facilities for people with disabilities, a claim that
> ignores the fact that job training services provided by an employer
> holding a special wage certificate are likely to reinforce the low
> expectation that workers with disabilities cannot be competitively
> employed, since the incentive is for the employer to continue
> exploiting their labor rather than prepare workers for other employment; 
> and
>
> WHEREAS, the Section 511 documentation and review process, which is
> meant to provide safeguards against inappropriate use of
> subminimum-wage employment, does not take into consideration the fact
> that state Vocational Rehabilitation programs do not have the
> resources to ensure effective compliance with the various
> documentation and review requirements, including the six-month review
> period in the proposed language, creating an opportunity to expand
> the exploitation caused by Section 14(c) of the FLSA; and
>
> WHEREAS, the good intentions motivating the development of Section
> 511 are likely to result in enormous negative consequences,
> especially the validation of subminimum-wage employment as a viable
> outcome for people with disabilities; and
>
> WHEREAS, the language does not provide an effective procedure for
> workers to challenge improper placement in such employment: Now, 
> therefore,
>
> BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention
> assembled this seventh day of July, 2011, in the city of Orlando,
> Florida, that this organization call on members of the Senate
> Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to remove Section
> 511 of the proposed Rehabilitation Act; and
>
> BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon all members of Congress,
> not to address the unjust law of Section 14(c) with ineffective
> measures, but to take direct action to abolish the reprehensible
> practice of subminimum-wage employment forever.
>
>
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