Disability management in the workplace: Problems and trends in Latvia

Abstract

People with disabilities are a largely untapped employment resource in many countries. About 48.5% of people with disabilities are employed in the European Union (EU), compared with only 24.4% in Latvia. Although there has been some progress on employing disabled people in Latvia, as the statistical facts and figures show, the problem still remains. This paper investigates how developing disability management in the workplace could open the possibilities for work for people with disabilities. It can be matched with the opportunities to increase the employment rate according to the European Disability Strategy (2010–2020) objectives, as well as fighting against social exclusion and allowing practical implementation of the United Convention on the rights of this group of people in Latvia. The aim of this research is to analyse the employment problems for people with disabilities and investigate disability management trends in Latvia. The main findings of this research are as follows: 1) people with disabilities are not considered as a prospective labour force by employers, 2) Latvian companies generally play a passive role in recruiting disabled people, especially those who have never had work experience with disabled people, 3) employers think that they do not receive state institutions’ interest and support to encourage them to employ people with disabilities. The disability management is developing, although it shows quite slow movement in understanding people with disabilities as a valuable human resource.