Employment of people with disabilities

The legally mandated employment rate for disabled people will increase from 2.2% to 2.3% on March 1, 2021.
Initially, the increase was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2021, but due to the impact of the new coronavirus on companies, the implementation date was pushed back by two months.
Until now, companies were required to hire one physically challenged person for every 45.5 employees, but after March, the ratio will be changed to one physically challenged person for every 43.5 employees.
As you know, there is another system called “payment for employment of the disabled people”.
Companies with more than 100 regular workers are required to pay 50,000 yen per month per person to the government in the case companies fail to the reach legally mandated employment rate. Also companies are required to report their employment status of disabled people to the government office every year, and if they fail to do so, they may be fined 300,000 yen, and if their employment status does not improve, their names may be made public.

Looking back on our experience, it seems that medium-sized companies, which have fewer employees than large companies, are less likely to promote the employment of people with disabilities.
There are many small and medium-sized companies that are willing to accept people with disabilities. However, there are several issues hard to be overcome, such as the working environment barrier-free for wheelchair users.
It is necessary to have an internal backup system to support the daily work for the disabled people.

The telecommuting system, which was introduced in a big way this year to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, should help promote the employment of disabled people, considering that (1) it frees them from the burden of commuting and (2) by combining it with the super-flexible working hours system, they can work according to their physical conditions.

One of PMP’s close customers has set up a satellite office for the disabled people, where they work together. ＂I used to commute from my home to the office on time and work with all the employees. I could see that they were concerned about me and I used to be concerned about them every day. Here (at the satellite office), everyone is the same, and we can work happily without any worries.” 
At this satellite office, he said, “Many of his work-related problems were resolved in the course of chatting with his colleagues.”

Recently, PMP delivered a project to create a system for the employment of artist employees with disabilities. The first artist employee is a cut and paste artist. She had a solo exhibition in New York last year. She will be required to work from home without commuting, to work flexible hours, and to provide her works to the company within a certain period of time with no overtime in principle. The company plans to display her works at the reception desk and in the reception area, as well as in the company brochure.

We often hear that it is difficult to find jobs for the disabled people when trying to hire them.
I would like to suggest, let’s change the way of thinking and try to find a new direction to utilize people with different abilities.