[Vendorsmi] Fw: [Nfbnet-members-list] RESOLUTION 2011-17 Regarding the WorkforceInvestment Act Reauthorization

[Joe Sontag]

lease read the resolution shown below, tweet about it, put the text of the resolution text on Facebook or your favorite social 
networking site; let's make everybody aware of what's been going on and how we will stop it one fine day.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Freeh,Jessica (by way of David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>)" <JFreeh at nfb.org>
To: <nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org>
Cc: <nfb-announce at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2011 13:50
Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] 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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