Promotion of training and employment

The main contents of the Act to Promote Training and Employment of People with Serious Disabilities (Gesetz zur Förderung der Ausbildung und Beschäftigung schwerbehinderter Menschen) of 23 April 2004 (Federal Law Gazette Part I [BGBL I], p. 606).

Strengthening the willingness of employers to train and improving the training available to young people with disabilities

In order to create more training opportunities for seriously-disabled young people, employers are working more closely with works councils and organisations representing the seriously disabled. They work together to fill training places with seriously-disabled young people. If a training contract is concluded, the severely-disabled trainee counts as occupying two reserved places, instead of only one. What is more, employers can receive allowances towards the cost of vocational training.

The promotion of young people with disabilities has also been further improved. For the duration of in-house vocational training they have the same entitlements as people with serious disabilities, even if a level of disability has not been determined or the level of disability is below 30. A statement from the competent employment agency suffices as documentation. Equal entitlement means that the training enterprises can receive premiums and subsidies towards the cost of vocational training.

Improved advice, information and support for employers to remedy obstacles to employment and to safeguard employment

Providing more information to enterprises about the possibilities to train and employ people with serious disabilities is a major goal. In order to achieve this, the integration offices provide employers with contacts in chambers of trade, industry and commerce in order to advise them on the possible financial benefits towards assistance in working life and on the activities of specialist integration services. The specialist integration services in turn are to be available to employers to advise them, provide them with information about benefits for employers and clarify their entitlement to such benefits. In addition to this, the specialist integration services also support employers by virtue of the fact that they support in-house training of young people with serious disabilities.

Company prevention through in-house integration management

In-house integration management will be a major tool to retain employability in future, and hence to extend employees' life working cycle. Goals are to intervene early and specifically at work and provide tailored benefits aiming to provide rehabilitation instead of pensions. Employers whose workers are unable to work for longer periods, or indeed repeatedly, will in future clarify how the inability to work can be overcome if possible, and with what benefits or assistance renewed inability to work can be prevented and the job retained. The employer, the employee representatives, the spokesperson(s) representing seriously disabled employees and the works or company doctor clarify this matter together with the person in question. The introduction of in-house integration management can be supported by premiums or subsidies.

Strengthening the rights of seriously-disabled employees' spokespersons

The powers available to seriously-disabled employees' spokespersons as a major contact for seriously-disabled employees are to be expanded. In order to ensure that these spokespersons can also effectively carry out their tasks in enterprises with a large staff, deputy spokespersons are increasingly being deployed to lend support in carrying out these tasks. In establishments and units which employ more than 100 seriously-disabled people, it will be possible in future to deploy one deputy spokesperson, and where there are 200 or more seriously-disabled people an additional deputy spokesperson is to act in support of the trustee.

Further expansion of the specialist integration services

The specialist integration services, which have considerable skills in the psychosocial and work-educational field, will shoulder increased responsibility for caring for specially affected people with serious disabilities at their workplaces and for supporting them in their work. The employment agencies will more often deploy them in providing vocational advice and orientation in schools to ensure support for young people with serious disabilities in their transition into working life. In this way, in-house training of young people with serious disabilities will be supported by the specialist integration services.

Promotion of the transition from sheltered workshops to the general labour market

It has been made easier for people with serious disabilities who are able to improve and stabilise their performance during their work in a sheltered workshop to transfer to the general labour market. Employers may therefore receive subsidies if they recruit people with serious disabilities who were previously employed in sheltered workshops. These individuals are also counted twice against reserved places, hence making it easier for employers to meet their obligation to employ people with serious disabilities.

Charitability of integration projects

Integration projects within the meaning of section 132 subsection 1 of Book Nine of the Social Code, that is enterprises which employ an above-average number of people with particularly serious disabilities, are purpose-determined commercial activities, and hence charitable enterprises within the meaning of the Tax Code (Abgabenordnung) if they employ at least 40 percent of people with particularly serious disabilities. They are thus exempt from paying taxes on earnings, and only pay a reduced rate of value-added tax (7 percent). This increases the competitiveness of establishments which employ people with serious disabilities who experience particular disadvantages on the labour market.

Simplified procedure to determine the characteristic of seriously disabled

In future, it will be possible for seriously-disabled persons' passes to be issued permanently in cases in which it is not expected that a major change in the health circumstances will affect the level of disability determined, and no longer only for a duration of up to 15 years for each pass.