Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2015, published 105th ILC session (2016)

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159) - Mexico (Ratification: 2001)

Article 2 of the Convention. National policy on vocational rehabilitation and employment. The Committee notes with interest that the constitutional reform of 2011 inserted a general prohibition of discrimination in article 1 of the Federal Constitution, which explicitly includes disability. Furthermore, section 133 of the Federal Labour Act (LFT), which has been in force since 2012, prohibits employers or their representatives from refusing to accept workers for reasons of disability. Since May 2011, the General Act on the integration of persons with disabilities has been in force, section 11 of which requires the National Secretariat for Labour and Social Welfare (STPS) to promote the right to work and employment of persons with disabilities under equality of opportunities and conditions of equity, which offers them certainty for their personal, social and occupational development. The Confederation of Industrial Chambers of the United States of Mexico (CONCAMIN) also welcomes the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the labour market and the adaptation of workplaces to the conditions of persons with disabilities. The Government indicates that the strategies set out in the National Development Plan 2013–18 include protection of the rights of persons with disabilities and the promotion of their comprehensive development and full inclusion. The Plan envisages the formulation and implementation of strategies to increase the inclusion in productive work of persons with disabilities through vocational skills schemes and links with the productive sector. The Government adds that 1,127 persons with disabilities were integrated into training in 2013, and that a total of 730 persons with various types of disability were integrated into employment. The National Programme of Work and Employment for Persons with Disabilities (PNTEPD) 2014–18 has as its principal objectives the dissemination of the labour rights of persons with disabilities; training, rehabilitation and placement based on competencies and skills; the promotion of a national network of employment services coordinating the action taken by the various departments and agencies of the federal public administration responsible for the labour integration of persons with disabilities and the recognition of good labour practices for the benefit of persons with disabilities. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the implementation and periodic review of the national policy on vocational rehabilitation and employment promotion for persons with disabilities.

Article 3. Employment promotion. The Committee notes the implementation of the National Network of Employment Services, which provides coordinated services of advice, assessment, rehabilitation, training, access to self-employment and social programmes. Since 2013, the National Network has had 31 state networks in the capital cities of the federative entities, as well as a supervisory and follow-up system for the National Network of Employment Services (SRNVL). In 2013, a total of 164 persons with disabilities were placed in the labour market, of whom 33 are women and 131 are men. The Government provides information on the implementation of the “Opening Spaces” strategy, which consists of a specialized labour exchange through which interested employers recruit persons in a situation of vulnerability, including persons with disabilities. As a result of this strategy, during the period between June 2009 and May 2014, a total of 136,152 vacancies were notified to jobseekers with disabilities, of whom 47,909 obtained employment. With regard to vocational training, the Government indicates that, through the specialized rehabilitation and education centres located in 17 states, a structured process has been established to promote the social and labour rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. In addition, the Sectoral Labour and Social Welfare Programme 2013–18 provides for vocational training to increase the integration of women with disabilities into productive employment. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the results achieved by the measures adopted to promote the employment of persons with disabilities.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2016.]