PROGRESS REPORT 1998
SOCIAL ACTION

DISABLED PEOPLE AND THE JOB MARKET WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION

The community believes that disabled people have no skills and that they are unable to earn their own living. However, despite their disabilities, they are human beings who are able and willing to get the chance to develop the skills they possess. There is no point in a disabled person making an effort if the results are not culturally accepted.

In Metropolitan Bilbao, 71.3% of the 30,000 disabled people registered in Bizkaia are at a working age. However, despite the fact that four out of five are completely autonomous, only 11.3% actually have a job.

Between 45 and 65% of the disabled people in the European Union as a whole are at a working age. Of these people, somewhere around 5% are considered as being "seriously disabled", and 12% as "partially disabled". Approximately half of them are from 50 to 64 years old, while only 8% are under 25.

With respect to sectors of activity, in relation to non-disabled people, a disproportionate number of seriously disabled men and women were working during 1994 in the European Union in agriculture, construction and public works, and, to a lesser extent, in the health services, personal services and others. On the other hand, a very restricted number work in the manufacturing industry and, to a lesser extent, in distribution, business services, the financial sector and education. In the case of women, the differences in the structure of sectorial employment are comparatively weaker.

Likewise, a proportionally lower number of disabled people who are at working age than non-disabled people, have university diplomas or the equivalent. This situation repeats itself, for both men and for women, in most of the Member States of the European Union. On the other hand, the proportion of disabled men and women who possess a higher education diploma was closely related to non-disabled people in most European countries.

For disabled jobholders, discrimination is less obvious with respect to salaries than it is to posts and sectors. No matter what the case, the main sign of discrimination and exclusion lies in the impossibility to find a job, especially in countries where social cover and the rise in benefits are insufficient.

Law 13/82 on the "Social Integration of Disabled People" (SIDP), establishes that companies with over 50 permanent workers should employ at least 2% of disabled people. However this law is not in practice often applied, starting from the Administration level itself.

Europe has seen the appearance of disabled peoples' movements, the creation of organisations and the demand that the disabled be allowed to participate in the training and putting into practice of the policy that concerns them. This movement of disabled people considers that incapacity does not lie in physical or mental deficiencies, but in social attitudes and institutional behaviour.

Technology is not only an added value for companies, but is a also highly important competitive advantage and a chance to employ specific social groups with difficulties in gaining access to the job market. Thus, the development of expert techniques and processes that facilitate learning, training and the job, gives Administrations, companies and the disabled people themselves new perspectives of integration.
 

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*The need to promote the employability of the underprivileged

Job insertion is often the last stage on a social rehabilitation itinerary for the excluded; the first stages of which correspond to the meeting of basic shortcomings and the last, to the design of a personal employment plan. This means that the stress has to be placed on promoting employability, understood as a person's ability to adapt to a job offer, not to mention the development of attitudes, interests, motivations, knowledge, training and aptitudes that place this person in a favourable position with respect to the job market.

One especially worrying problem, and one to which more attention should be paid, is youth unemployment, especially in cases where the family has no money left, and is suffering serious financial hardship. Moreover, it has been noted that, despite the improvement in the economic situation, no progress is being observed as regards the finding of jobs by marginalised collectivities.

Given that social action for the homeless in Metropolitan Bilbao has mainly concentrated until now on older people, the growing group of homeless youngsters gives rise to the need to offer them personalised itineraries for achieving social integration.

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*Updating of the legislative framework on social action

The new Basque Law on Volunteer Services, which was approved in June 1998, recognises the role of civilian society and establishes the bases on which these services should be carried out. It also dictates that the role of the volunteer must take the shape of contribution, by means of innovation and collaboration with other social partners, to the design, development and carrying out of public policies that tend to guarantee social change. It goes on to state that the priority objectives of this law are the struggle against poverty and inequalities and the construction of a fair and egalitarian society.

All steps taken to strengthen organised volunteering must encourage the kind of volunteering that works at changing things rather than that which works at providing welfare, with emphasis on actions that promote collaboration between different organisations, going beyond sectorial work and linking the initiatives to the region or municipality in which they are being carried out.

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*New kinds of social exclusion

Recent studies confirm the appearance of new kinds of social exclusion related to drug addiction. In addition to the heroin addict, often related to criminal acts and serious problems of social integration, there are other types of addicts who are not so easily recognisable. This is the case of a specific type of drug addict, who prefers designer drugs, who has a family and paid job, and whose dependence often results in serious family, job and social problems.

A situation that appears time and time again with respect to addicts who turn to specialised organisations for help, is their poor education and the fact that they have left school early. It is therefore obvious that basic levels of education must be guaranteed as far as people at the risk of exclusion are concerned, while promoting more healthy free-time activities.

The Ombudsman has pointed out the need to create the necessary infrastructures to permit the carrying out of punishment other than the prison sentence dictated by the new Penal Code. This kind of sanction would prevent the social isolation brought about by locking someone away for having committed a minor crime, and means that alternatives such as community work should be encouraged.

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*The need to respect and defend the rights of children and adolescents

Some 15,000 children and adolescents in Bizkaia suffer from serious health deficiencies, problems at school and families in permanent conflict. 75% of these youngsters live in Bilbao and on the Left Bank of the Estuary. It has also been noted that 20% of these minors do not go to school, even though school attendance is the most efficient manner of detecting risk situations at an early stage.

The institutions have to promote social consciousness by means of campaigns that permit the providing of information and creation of awareness on the situation as regards the need to respect and defend the rights of children and adolescents, whether for children and adolescents or for the population in general, not to mention the professional sectors related to this collectivity.

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*Social integration of immigrants and refugees

The Strategic Plan of Revitalisation underlines the need to create mechanisms for the learning of languages and both social and job training, for immigrants and refugees, as a manner of helping them to find a job, get by on a day-to-day basis, and establish social relations with the people around them.

It is essential to ensure that immigrant children are sent to school, and that specific programmes are totally or partially directed at this collective, who require a compensatory education which also respects their original culture.

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*Improvements in the quality of adult life and leisure

The present home-help service falls short of meeting the objectives anticipated by the Gerontology Plan of the Basque Autonomous Community (where 6% of the population is over 65). The increase in the rate of cover should be attained without reducing average intensity, by adjusting it in each case to the degree of dependence, hence avoiding having to take recourse to a standard service.

The Strategic Plan of Revitalisation recommends the creation of a network of cultural and recreational activities in order to help the elderly to pass the time, meet more people and generally improve their quality of life. In this sense, the Adult University represents a pilot project which, thanks to the collaboration of the University of the Basque Country and the BBK savings bank, provides the local over-55s with university training especially designed to cover their educational requirements.

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*How social action is seen in Metropolitan Bilbao

Bilbao is seen by its inhabitants as equally individualist to other big cities (54% of those polled answered yes to this question), although this figure is higher than it was in the last opinion poll since, while in 1997, 15% thought that Bilbao was more individualist, in 1998 this percentage rises to 23%.

Most of those polled consider that poverty and marginalisation will remain at similar levels ten years from now, although they are far more optimistic in 1998 than they were in 1997 (when 19% of those polled were of the opinion that this situation would improve, a percentage which has risen to 37% in 1998).
 

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