EMPLOYMENT POLICIES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN FLANDERS (BELGIUM) A SHORT OVERVIEW

Erik Samoy Departement Werk en Sociale Economie

1. Flanders in Belgium * To understand the policies and programmes for the disabled in Flanders (Belgium), some insight into the political and administrative structure of the country is needed. Since 1980, Belgium has been a federal state with three language-based ‘communities’ and three territorial ‘regions’. The communities are : - the Dutch-speaking community (Flemish Community – Vlaamse Gemeenschap) - the French-speaking community (French Community – Communauté française) - the German-speaking community (Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft) The regions are : - the Brussels-Capital Region (Brussels hoofdstedelijk gewest – Région de Bruxellescapitale) - the Flemish Region (Vlaams gewest) - the Walloon Region (Région wallonne). Members of the Dutch-speaking Community live in the Flemish Region and in BrusselsCapital, those of the French-speaking Community in the Walloon Region and in BrusselsCapital and those of the (tiny) German-speaking Community in the Walloon region. Belgium has 10,8 million inhabitants, about 58% of whom live in the Flemish Region, 33% in the Walloon Region and 10% in Brussels-Capital. Competencies are shared between the federal state, the regions and the communities. Beside the federal government, each region and each community has its own government, but the governments of the Flemish Region and the Flemish Community have been merged. Employment policies for the disabled are a mix of policy measures belonging to the competency of the federal state (e.g. anti-discrimination law, quotas for federal civil servants, disability benefits), the regions (e.g. special placement agencies, wage subsidies) or the communities (e.g. vocational training, sheltered work). Most of what follows is about the Flemish Region and Community, but we will also look briefly at the federal level and mention a few things about the other regions and communities.

2. Employment policies for the disabled Employment policies for the disabled may be divided between active and passive policies. Passive policies allow disabled people to (temporarily or definitively) leave the labour market by providing income replacement benefits . Active policies aim at integrating or reintegrating people into the labour market through vocational training, placement, etc. However, the distinction between both types of policy measures is not always clear-cut. Benefit schemes may contain active elements avoiding benefit traps and encouraging recipients to go back to work (e.g. by allowing a gradual return to work, combining benefit and income from work). In Belgium, passive policies for the disabled are implemented by the federal level, whereas active policies are mainly a matter for the Regions and Communities.

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3. Employment policies at the federal level Policy measures at the federal level include disability benefit schemes, anti-discrimination legislation and quotas. There are a number of different disability benefit schemes. Insured employees on a private sector contract becoming incapacitated for work may claim a sickness benefit for a period of up to one year. If the condition persists longer, they may go on invalidity benefit. Those not insured under the Sickness and Invalidity Act are entitled to a means-tested disability allowance. There are special schemes for people who become incapacitated due to an occupational accident or disease. They receive compensation for the damage but, contrary to the recipients of the benefits mentioned earlier, they are not obliged to stop working. Incapacitated public sector employees from all levels and from the education sector are entitled to retire and receive an early pension. Two other schemes implemented at the federal level cater for disabled employees: a small number of people on unemployment benefit (which is not time-limited in Belgium) and some recipients of the residual and means-tested welfare benefit are partially incapacitated for work. Except for the early retirement scheme for civil servants, the schemes contain ‘activation’ elements; the benefits may for instance be extended to people undergoing vocational training or combined with income from work. For occupational accidents and diseases, this possibility is unlimited, but an income ceiling is imposed on recipients of sickness or invalidity benefits, disability allowances, unemployment benefits and welfare benefits returning to work. Federal anti-discrimination legislation is another type of active policy to remove barriers for disabled people wanting to find work or to remain in work. A 2003 law, revised in 2007, bans discrimination in hiring and in many other aspects of the labour relations on the grounds of a disability or health. Discrimination includes failure to provide reasonable accommodation. Finally, the federal administration has to meet a quota of 3% disabled people among the workforce and is obliged to provide reasonable accommodation in the recruitment process and in the workplace. As yet, Belgium has no quota obligations for the private sector.

4. Employment policies at the level of the Regions and Communities Before 1990, policies for the disabled were national, but in the nineties several new institutions were created to implement the competencies of the Regions and the Communities in the field of social care and employment: -

The Flemish Fund for the Social Integration of People with Disabilities (from 2004 : Flemish Agency for Disabled People / Vlaams Agentschap voor Personen met een Handicap).

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The Walloon Agency for the Integration of Disabled People (Agence Wallone pour l'Intégration des Personnes Handicapées) The French Brussels Service for Disabled People (Service bruxellois francophone des personnes handicapées) The Agency for Disabled People (Dienststelle für Personen mit Behinderung)

In 2006, Flanders mainstreamed employment services for the disabled and for employers in the regular labour market into the Flemish Public Employment and Vocational Training Service (Vlaamse Dienst voor Arbeidsbemiddeling en Beroepsopleiding, VDAB). Recognition and financing of sheltered employment is a task for another mainstream Agency, the Flemish Subsidy Agency for Work and Social Economy (Vlaams Subsidieagentschap voor Werk en Sociale Economie, VSAWSE).

5. Policies in Flanders The target group of the policies described are the inhabitants of the Flemish Region and the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Brussels-Capital. Based on the instruments used by government to induce different actors on the labour market (job-seekers, employees and employers) to behave in an intended way, policies may be described as regulatory, compensatory and substitution policies. 5.1. Regulatory policies Regulatory policies impose or prohibit certain behaviours or provide incentives to obtain a desired behaviour. One of the best known type of regulatory policies is the quota obligation. An obligation to employ 3% registered disabled is placed on the Flemish administration, whereas the municipalities and provinces have to reach 2%, but there are no quotas for the private sector. The targets are currently not being met. In addition to the federal anti-discrimination law of 2007, there are two Flemish decrees (2002 and 2008) banning discrimination on the grounds of disability or health and imposing the provision of reasonable accommodation. Complaints may be filed with the federal Centre for equal opportunities or one of the regional Flemish complaints offices. Cases brought before the civil or criminal courts may lead to sanctions, but they are extremely rare. Most disputes are solved through conciliation procedures. Apart from the occasional awareness campaign directed at the general public or the employers, most incentives are part of a larger 'Employment Equity and Diversity' policy aimed mostly at several targets groups such as immigrants, older workers or disabled people. An important instrument of this policy are the so-called 'diversity plans' designed to stimulate companies, local authorities, NGOs, etc. to take concrete action to gradually raise the employment rate of disadvantaged groups to that of the general Flemish population. To assist interested organisations in drafting their diversity plan, public funding has been made available for over forty consultants. Every year there are a few hundred plans which contain actions for the disabled. Many plans also make use of compensatory policy instruments such as recruitment and training.

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5.2 Compensatory policies In general, compensatory policies aim at helping actors in the labour market to overcome the obstacles preventing them from acting the way the government intended them to, which for the disabled people could be to participate in training and for the employers to hire disabled people. Nearly all the compensatory policies in Flanders are implemented by the VDAB or by organisations recognized and subsidised by it. There are three types of compensatory policy measures: -

improving the productive capacities of disabled people through rehabilitation and vocational training; adapting the production requirements to the abilities of disabled people, through measures allowing employers to adapt the working conditions (e.g. compensate reduced productivity by means of wage-subsidies) or the material or social working environment; improving the matching process between offer and demand on the labour market through specialised screening, mediation, guidance on the pathway to work, job coaching, etc.

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Medical rehabilitation is often a preliminary step on the road (back) to work, but in Belgium it is part of the federal health policy and falls outside the competence of the Flemish government. Compensatory policies require a clarification of the concept of work-disability. In the decree on the VDAB work disability (arbeidshandicap) is defined as : "Every important and longstanding problem of participation in working life, due to the interaction of impairments of a mental, psychological, physical or sensory nature, limitations in the performance of activities and personal or external factors". This definition does not readily allow to determine whether a person belongs to the target group of disabled for work in need of compensatory measures. For that purpose, a set of criteria providing a possible indication of work-disability has been developed:       

recognition as a disabled person by the Flemish Agency for the Disabled; the highest level of education obtained has been obtained in a special school; eligibility for a disability allowance; certification of a permanent incapacity for work by way of a court decision or a decision of the appropriate federal administration; eligibility for a prolonged or increased disability-based child allowance; eligibility for an invalidity benefit; certification of a disability by a medical doctor, a service or an organisation recognized by the VDAB.

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If at least one of these criteria is met, the person concerned might belong to the target group of compensatory policy measures (indicatie van arbeidshandicap). In most cases, these people are referred to a special counsellor from a Special Pathways to work and Guidance Service (Gespecialiseerde Trajectbepaling- en Begeleiding, GTB). In determining the appropriate pathway to work, these services are assisted by assessment centres (Gespecialiseerde Arbeidsonderzoeksdiensten, GA) which screen and assess jobseekers. One of the options under Pathways to Work, is a vocational training provided by a special centre (Gespecialiseerde Opleidings-, Begeleidings- en Bemiddelingsdienst, GOB). At least half of the training takes place on-the-job. People who are disabled for work are entitled to special employment measures (Bijzondere Tewerkstellingsondersteunende Maatregelen, BTOM's) on the basis of the type and/or severity of their disability, their educational background and work history, or the abovementioned assessment. These special employment measures include:  adaptations to the working environment (e.g. special equipment, adapted workstations);  interpreter services for the hearing-impaired;  reimbursement of travelling costs for people in work or in training;  wage subsidies for employers;  sheltered employment. Wage subsidies are awarded to employers in the private sector and in education and to local authorities. The basic scheme is a subsidy of 40 % of the labour costs during the first year, 30 % during the second, and 20 % in the third, fourth and fifth. Then follows an evaluation which decides on the continuation of the subsidy. Based on a special assessment, the subsidy may be raised from the first year on to a maximum of 60 %. There is also a separate scheme for independent workers. 5.3. Substitution policies This last type of policies has been developed to supplement regulatory and compensatory policies. They are usually aimed at the more severely disabled. Sheltered work in workshops for the disabled is the most common form in Belgium as a whole, but in Flanders there are also "social workshops" providing employment opportunities for disabled people. Although progression to a regular job is the ultimate goal, most employees don't leave. There is as yet no official programme of supported employment in Flanders, but there are some ongoing experiments. More detailed information (in Dutch) is provided at: www.werk.be (nota Handicap en Arbeid) www.vdab.be/arbeidshandicap

* Special thanks are due to Lina Waterplas for her revision of this text.

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Colofon Samenstelling Vlaamse overheid Beleidsdomein Werk en Sociale Economie Departement Werk en Sociale Economie Koning Albert II-laan 35 bus 20 1030 Brussel 02 553 42 56 [email protected] www.werk.be Verantwoordelijke uitgever Dirk Vanderpoorten Secretaris-generaal Uitgave Januari 2013

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