Globalisation: The Effect on Disabled Workers

Even though attitudes are gradually changing, progress on integrating workers with disabilities and respecting their rights could soon come to a standstill. The problem is the fierce competition between companies in the age of globalization, as well as some governments’ drive to cut social spending and boost labour market participation. Despite a whole battery of national legislation, many employers still avoid recruiting people with disabilities.

According to a British trade union study carried out in connection with a parliamentary commission, employers show various types of apprehension about such hiring: uncertainty about skills and needs, uncertainty about the cost of any adjustments needed to change the workplace, fear of disabled workers’ impact on company performance, the assumption that customers and fellow workers would take a negative view of disabled employees, and the feeling that the costs involved would be too high and would harm the enterprise. Such prejudices are reinforced these days by the fear of losing or never gaining the holy grail of competitiveness, are often at the root of discrimination against differently-abled job seekers. There globalization and the competition it creates has presented many obstacles for differently-abled workers wanting to enter the workplace

Luc Demaret
Editor-in-Chief
Labour Education
Disability – the human cost of discrimination

Globalization & Changing Skills Needs

Globalization is breaking down traditional labour markets and employment patterns. Employers in developed nations and in parts of the developing world are experiencing skills gaps as the speed with which the nature of work changes increases.

Governments are struggling to help populations’ re-skill and there is growing concern at an international level, for example at the World Economic Forum, about the growing problem of unemployment.

• Almost half of all businesses with skills shortage vacancies lose out to competitors due to a lack of skilled workers.

• Just over a third of employers said that they would need a higher level of skills over the next three years. Just over a quarter said that they would need a "broader range of capabilities.

• American business identified recruitment and selection of qualified workers as the top concern for the new millennium.

Many disabled people are highly skilled and represent a significant untapped pool of talent:

• 45,000 disabled students in the UK study at university every year

• 23.9% of disabled people in work are in management or professional occupations

• 2% of the workforce becomes disabled every year. Due to poor employment practices and the need for rehabilitation leave many of these people are not retained by their employers

• At least 1.5 million part time disabled workers are working below their potential
  

Employers are increasingly recognizing that they need to be innovative in finding new sources of talent to fill the skills gaps which they are experiencing. Through examining recruitment and employment practices and processes through the experience of disabled people, global employers will develop approaches which work better for diverse employee groups working flexibly, across different time zones and in different cultures.

However it is important to recognize the link between disability and social exclusion, which has led to many disabled people being under skilled.