Disability in the Workplace: Creating a Can Do Attitude

Disability in the Workplace: Creating a Can Do Attitude
Jun 30, 2009 By Paul Bacon , eChinacities.com

Special Topic: Finding and Keeping Jobs in China

I first began to explore the issue of disability in the Chinese workplace in late 2007. I had been inspired by the story of Xu Hongyan, a visually impaired woman from Nanjing who was not only one of China’s top Paralympic athletes and the mother of a young child, but also a Deputy in the National People’s Congress. Xu had been lauded in the national press for winning a gold medal in the discus at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics and finding her way into China’s top legislative body. However, countless other disabled Chinese seemed to be something of an afterthought.

Back in 2007, talented employees were a scarce commodity here in China. My line of reasoning at the time was that if people like Xu Hongyan could reach such great heights, perhaps companies should have been looking at other disabled people to fill their ranks. The logic was pretty sound. China has a disabled population well in excess of 80 million people. This is more than the population of Great Britain or France and more than Australia and Canada combined. Many of those are elderly or incapable of working. However, there are still close to 40 million disabled Chinese who are fit to work. That is more than the combined population’s of China’s three biggest cities, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. Surely, amongst that number were people talented enough to help drive a major company forward.

Disabled person chinese workplace
Photo: Stas Kulesh

Unfortunately, people with disabilities did not feature proportionately in the Chinese workforce. This was despite clear legislation forbidding discrimination. The 1990 Law on the Protection of People with Disabilities states, “No discrimination shall be practiced against disabled persons in employment.” China was even one of the first countries to ratify 2007’s UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.” However, all too often, these laws proved to be nothing but hollow words – the theory never went quite so well in practice. The China Disabled People’s Federation argued that Chinese society is, “not fully informed of the disabled people's suffering," and that the government should work to increase awareness.

Since then, there have been two major events that had the potential to dramatically change the climate here in China for disabled people. First, Beijing played host to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. For the Olympics, the Chinese capital set about making the city accessible to disabled tourists and spectators. Then, the Paralympics, where China topped the medals table with an impressive 51 gold medals served to raise public awareness of disability. The government also ensured that coverage through state media was far greater than at previous events, giving China’s 4,200 paralympians a far greater audience than Xu Hongyan enjoyed in 2000. The second factor has been the global financial crisis. This has impacted not just disabled people, but the Chinese employment market as a whole. It is not easy for anyone to find a job! The big question for China’s disabled population is which factor will have the greatest effect, increased awareness or limited jobs?

China Paralympics disabled athletes with a can do attitude
Photo: Gaël Marziou

In Beijing, where there are an estimated 1,000,000 disabled people, there has certainly been some brighter news. In April, the local authorities announced that it will give 220million RMB (that’s $32 million) to around 56,000 disabled job hunters in the city to help them find jobs. The money will not go directly to the disabled people themselves. Rather, it will be awarded to

 
companies that are actively bringing can ji ren into the workplace. Any business in the capital that hires a disabled person on a one-year contract will receive 3,000 RMB. This looks a sweet deal for the employer when we consider the average salary of many Beijingers. Top recruitment website zhaopin.com puts the average monthly salary for an employee with a university degree at 2,600 RMB per month, whilst the National Bureaus of Statistics puts the average salary at around 3,100 RMB. This means that the subsidy could easily pay ten percent of the disabled person’s annual salary. Companies hiring a disabled employee on an open-ended contract can expect a subsidy of 5,000 RMB.

The moves have been welcomed by HR departments at companies across Beijing. A spokesman from Japanese electronics giant Fujitsu – which has 50 disabled employees on its staff already - said, “We will try our best to cooperate with the government to provide more positions for the disabled." According to China Daily, fast food giant McDonalds is also taking the initiative in terms of disability. It has hired over 80 disabled employees – most of which are hearing-impaired or suffer mild-mental illness – in its 97 branches in the capital.

Special Topic: Finding and Keeping Jobs in China

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