[Nfbmt] All Charitable Contributions Sustain Exploitive Services
sheila
sleigland at bresnan.net
Mon Dec 16 07:01:10 UTC 2013
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
>
> 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
>
> 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
> end-of-year giving. Make your contribution now.
>
>
>
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