[Nfbmt] All Charitable Contributions Sustain Exploitive Services

[sheila]

thanks for posting this. This is an important read.
On 12/15/2013 8:50 PM, James Aldrich wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This is a must read!
>
> Jim
>
> All Charitable Contributions Sustain Exploitive Services
> From:Lewis, AnilTo:Affiliate Presidents 
> (state-affiliate-leadership-list at nfbnet.org)NFB Chapter Presidents 
> discussion list (chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org)NABS List 
> (nabs-l at nfbnet.org)Subject:[State-affiliate-leadership-list] All 
> Charitable Contributions Sustain Exploitive Services
>
>
> All Charitable Contributions Sustain Exploitive Services
>
> Submitted by alewis on Mon, 12/09/2013 - 15:38
>
> Blog Date:
>
> Monday, December 9, 2013
>
> By Anil Lewis
>
> https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/all-charitable-contributions-sustain-exploitive-services 
>
>
>
>
> ACCSES, the American Congress of Community Supports and Employment 
> Services, is the name of an nonprofit “charitable” organization that 
> claims to represent disability service providers across the country 
> and professes to be the voice of disability service providers speaking 
> for people with disabilities. If ACCSES is indeed the voice of 
> disability service providers, it is unfortunate that they choose to 
> use their voice, and your charitable contributions, to support Section 
> 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which is an unfair, 
> immoral, and discriminatory provision that allows employers to pay 
> workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage.  And 
> although ACCSES states that it speaks for people with disabilities, 
> organizations comprised of people with disabilities reserve the right 
> to speak for ourselves, and we adamantly oppose this discriminatory 
> provision.
>
> Some of the ACCSES member organizations rise to the higher calling of 
> a true charitable organization and use your contributions to operate 
> successfully without the use of a special “subminimum” wage 
> certificate, proving that it can be done.  However, rather than 
> supporting the evolution of all of its member organizations toward the 
> adoption of this proven business model, ACCSES uses your charitable 
> contributions to lobby members of Congress to keep in place this 
> seventy-five-year-old provision that allows organizations to legally 
> pay workers with disabilities pennies per hour.  ACCSES openly opposes 
> our efforts to phase out the use of this discriminatory provision by 
> circulating misleading documents and public service announcements that 
> attempt to justify its use of this anachronistic practice.
>
> ACCSES and its less enlightened members sustain their exploitive 
> business model by perpetuating the misconception that people with 
> disabilities cannot be productive employees, and by asserting that 
> Section 14(c) of the FLSA allows them to pay subminimum wages in order 
> to provide disabled people with an opportunity to receive the 
> “tangible and intangible benefits of work.”  This may have been a 
> well-intended effort in 1938, but it has been proven ineffective and 
> costly in today’s workplace. Today, people with disabilities speak for 
> ourselves and we say: eliminate the excuses and allow the experts to 
> assist people with significant disabilities to acquire competitive job 
> skills and earn at least the federal minimum wage.  And if ACCSES, or 
> its member organizations, are unable to provide appropriate training 
> for workers with disabilities to become productive employees, they 
> should not be allowed to impose their inadequacy and lack of expertise 
> on individuals with disabilities.
>
> ACCSES’s service model is founded on the belief that a person with a 
> disability cannot work competitively, and it should be no surprise 
> that this model results in over 400,000 people with disabilities being 
> labeled as incapable of performing competitive work. This lack of 
> belief in the employment potential of people with disabilities is 
> contrary to the growing Employment First paradigm of assuming that 
> everyone, regardless of disability, is employable when provided the 
> proper training and support.  As a result of the emerging belief in 
> the employment capacity of individuals with significant disabilities, 
> we are seeing an increase in the competitive employment of people with 
> disabilities who were formerly written off by society.
>
> Through its self-serving actions, ACCSES distorts the whole purpose of 
> a charitable organization and takes advantage of the legal designation 
> of a nonprofit business.  It is hypocritical that ACCSES and its 
> member nonprofit organizations attempt to justify their payment of 
> outrageous executive salaries while simultaneously trying to defend 
> their right to pay individuals with disabilities subminimum wages.  
> Regardless of the state and federal regulations that govern executive 
> compensation, we should expect ACCSES members to have a moral compass 
> that governs the proper use of their tax-exempt status. Thankfully, as 
> we continue to educate the public about this exploitive provision, we 
> are finding that donors are offended that their charitable donations 
> are being used to pay six-figure salaries to executives who pay their 
> workers with disabilities pennies per hour, especially when proven, 
> nondiscriminatory alternative models exist.  Until ACCSES member 
> organizations agree to convert to a business model that replaces their 
> segregated subminimum-wage workshops with proven competitive 
> integrated training and employment service environments, ACCSES may as 
> well be an acronym for All Charitable Contributions Sustain Exploitive 
> Services.
>
> The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2013, HR 831, will 
> responsibly phase out and eventually repeal Section 14(c) of the Fair 
> Labor Standards Act. As a result, individuals with the most 
> significant disabilities will no longer be trapped in segregated 
> subminimum-wage workshops.  Entities will have three years to 
> transition to a proven competitive integrated training and employment 
> business model that assists individuals with significant disabilities 
> to obtain real jobs at real wages. Organizations opposing the adoption 
> of this proven model only demonstrate their lack of expertise in the 
> field of employment of people with disabilities, their inability to be 
> competitive with similarly situated organizations, and their 
> unwillingness to meet the true calling of their charitable status.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Mr. Anil Lewis, M.P.A.
>
> Director of Advocacy and Policy
>
>
>
> “Eliminating Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities”
>
> http://www.nfb.org/fairwages
>
> NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
>
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>
> Baltimore, Maryland   21230
>
> (410) 659-9314 ext. 2374 (Voice)
>
> (410) 685-5653 (FAX)
>
> Email: alewis at nfb.org
>
> Web: www.nfb.org
>
> twitter: @anillife
>
>
>
> The National Federation of the Blind wishes you a joyous and safe 
> holiday season. We would appreciate you including the NFB in your 
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>
>
>
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