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Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159) - Ecuador (RATIFICATION: 1988)

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Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention. Implementation of a national policy for vocational rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government on the measures taken to promote the integration of persons with disabilities into the labour market. The Committee notes the adoption of ministerial agreement MDT-2018-175 establishing a percentage of 4 per cent for the hiring of workers with disabilities for employers in the public and private sector with at least 25 workers. The Government indicates that measures were taken with a view to strengthening compliance with the quota. In this regard, the Government reports that, through joint action between the Ministry of Labour (MDT), the National Council for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities (CONADIS), and the National Federation of Ecuadorians with Physical Disabilities (FENEDIF), labour inspections were carried out in 2,155 companies with a view to verifying compliance with the quota. As part of these labour inspections, 694 persons with disabilities were placed in the labour market. Also, in 2020, 86 labour inspectors were trained by CONADIS on the criteria for carrying out inspections in the field of the rights of persons with disabilities. The Government reports that, according to data from the MTD, between 2017 and 2020, 254,815 persons with disabilities were inserted into the labour market. On the other hand, the Government refers to the approval in 2018 of the Ministerial Agreement MDT-2018-0180 by which those persons considered as substitutes without labour inclusion can be part of the 4 per cent quota established for the hiring of persons with disabilities. The category of “direct substitute” is granted to parents of children and adolescents with disabilities and relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity, legal representatives of persons who have a person with severe disability under their care. Likewise, the category of “human solidarity substitute” is granted to those persons who, without being related by blood or affinity, can be included in the labour market in substitution of a person with severe disability, who do not have a family reference and who, due to their severe condition, are unable to do so. Employers may not hire more than fifty percent of substitutes of the established legal percentage. The Government indicates that the number of substitutes hired grew exponentially from 2,438 in 2017 to 7,070 in 2020. In this respect, the Committee refers to paragraph 2 of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Recommendation, 1983 (No. 168), which indicates that the purpose of vocational rehabilitation is to enable a person with a disability to secure, retain and advance in suitable employment and thereby to further such person's integration or reintegration into society. Consequently, the concepts of “direct replacement” and “human solidarity replacement” do not meet this objective. In relation to the measures adopted to encourage entrepreneurship among persons with disabilities, the Government refers to the creation of the preferential credit line “Somos Productivos” (We are Productive), which allows persons with disabilities and substitutes to obtain loans of between 50 and 59,100 dollars. The Government reports that, between 2019 and 2020, 14 259 credits were granted to persons with disabilities.

The Committee notes, however, that in its concluding observations of 21 October 2019, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) expressed its concern about the reduction in the number of persons with disabilities, especially women with disabilities, engaged in regular employment; the low level of compliance by the institutions of the State party itself and by businesses with the promotion of employment by means, inter alia, of assigned hiring quotas; the scant enforcement and lack of legislative measures for penalizing companies that are not hiring a sufficient number of persons with disabilities in regular positions; and the failure to promote opportunities for self- employment and entrepreneurship incentives for persons with disabilities (CRPD/C/ECU/CO/2-3, paragraph 47(b)). Finally, the Committee notes the launch on 4 August 2022 of the National Agenda for Disability Equality (ANID) 2021-2025, which includes among its objectives the promotion of labour inclusion and entrepreneurship among persons with disabilities. In this regard, ANID plans, among other measures, to strengthen the “Find Employment” platform; disseminate the tax benefits that employers can apply to increase the hiring of persons with disabilities; expand the Ecuadorian Network of Solidarity Enterprises (REDES) and promote awareness campaigns for companies, users and the public sector on the labour rights of persons with disabilities. The Committee requests the Government to provide updated information on compliance with the quota for hiring persons with disabilities, including the percentage of workers with disabilities who are hired and the percentage of those workers who are hired under the categories of “direct substitute” and “human solidarity substitute”. It also requests the Government to provide updated information on the nature, extent and impact of the specific measures taken to promote the employment of persons with disabilities in the open labour market, in particular women with disabilities. In this respect, the Committee requests the Government to provide statistical information, disaggregated by sex, age and type of disability, as well as by region, and extracts from reports, studies and research relating to the issues covered by the Convention. The Committee further requests the Government to provide updated statistical information on the participation of persons with disabilities in the labour market, disaggregated by sex, level of education and type of disability.

Article 4. Effective equality of opportunity and treatment. The Commission notes that, in its 2019 concluding observations, the CRPD expressed its concern that the legislation does not incorporate an explicit, cross-cutting definition or prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability, particularly with regard to women, children, indigenous persons, persons of African descent, Montubio persons, migrants and refugees with disabilities, in all areas of life; ...; and that the definition of reasonable accommodation is not mainstreamed in the State party’s laws, accommodations of this sort are infrequent and the denial of reasonable accommodation is not recognized as a form of discrimination (CRPD/C/ECU/CO/2-3, paragraphs 13(a) and (c)). The Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information on the manner in which effective equality of opportunity and treatment is ensured between men and women workers with disabilities, and between workers with disabilities and other workers, and how the provision of reasonable accommodation is envisaged in the legislation.

Article 5. Consultation of the social partners and with organizations representing persons with disabilities. The Committee requests the Government to provide detailed updated information on the content and outcome of the consultations held with the social partners and organizations representing persons with disabilities in relation to the implementation of measures for vocational guidance and employment promotion of persons with disabilities.

Article 7. Vocational training for persons with disabilities. The Committee notes that the ANID 2021-2025 envisages the adoption of measures with a view to promoting specialized and inclusive quality education, strengthening access and retention of persons with disabilities in higher education, and promoting training and certification by labour competencies for persons with disabilities. In this regard, the Committee notes that, in its concluding observations of 21 October 2019, the CRPD noted with concern that “the State party retains the use of a special education model; that segregated forms of education predominate in its legislation, in particular in the Organic Act on Disabilities; that 151 segregated schools still exist; and that not enough is being done to change the education system into one based on quality inclusive education” (CRPD/C/ECU/CO/2-3, paragraph 43). The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide updated information on the nature, scope and impact of the specific vocational guidance and training measures takenwithin the general vocational training system to enable persons with disabilities to obtain, retain and progress in employment.