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Report Finds Government Dollars Used to Segregate and Exploit Workers with Disabilities

 

WASHINGTON – In a report released today, the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) outlined how federal funding is being used to shuttle people with

disabilities into sheltered workshops and deprive them of meaningful employment opportunities.

 

“There is a total disconnect between what governments say they want to accomplish in terms of employment for people with disabilities and how they are actually

spending taxpayer dollars,” said Curt Decker, NDRN executive director.

 

The report, Beyond Segregated and Exploited is a follow up to a report released last year that examined the issue of segregating working people with disabilities

in sheltered workshops and the use of the subminimum wage to exploit their disability for the financial gain of employers.  The new report is an update

on progress to end those practices and move toward a system that encourages integrated employment options that pay competitive wages.

 

This report also provides additional insight into the complex and confusing system that pumps millions of dollars into sheltered work despite good national

public policy meant to encourage integration and competitive employment.  The report follows money designated to be spent on integrated employment as it

winds its way from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to the states, state agencies,

and finally into sheltered workshops.

 

“Admirably the message we hear from federal agencies is about the importance of integrated employment,” continued Decker. “Yet the majority of the money

allocated for this purpose actually ends up being spent in facilities that segregate people with disabilities and isolates them from their communities.

 

“Worse, our investigations over the past year concluded most of these facilities do not teach marketable skills or prepare workers for any type of meaningful

work outside of the sheltered workshop.  Instead, they trap workers in endless ‘training’ programs that pay little if anything, leaving the ‘trainee’ impoverished.”

 

The report calls for:

List of 3 items

• Ending segregated employment and the subminimum wage by restricting all federal and state money that is spent on employers who segregate employees with

disabilities from the general workforce.

• Strengthening current and create new tax incentives for employers to hire people with disabilities in integrated workplaces at comparable wages.

• Increasing labor protections and enforcement of existing law.

list end

 

The report, found at www.ndrn.org, is called

Beyond Segregated and Exploited: Update on the Employment of People with Disabilities

(click to download).

 

 

Source: National Disabilities Rights Network at:

http://www.ndrn.org/en/component/content/article/24-hompagestories/261-report-finds-government-dollars-used-to-segregate-and-exploit-workers-with-disabilities.html