I received an email from the Training Resources Network: www.trninc.com, a terrific organisation headed up by a NOVA friend, Dale DiLeo a champion of disability rights who graciously agreed to join us in Australia last year to present some staff training.
The following is taken from http://raymondsroom.blogspot.com/ and I recommend a full read:
In a just released report sure to be controversial, the National Disability Rights Network has called for an end to segregated work, sheltered employment, and sub-minimum wage. In an introductory note, NDRN executive director Curt Decker states:
"...hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities are being isolated and financially exploited by their employers. Many are segregated away from traditional work and kept out of sight. Most are paid only a fraction of the minimum wage while many company owners make six -figure salaries. Many people profit off of their labor. All, except the worker. For many people with disabilities, their dream of leaving their - job training program - will never come true. They labor away making only a tiny portion of what they should because there is a system in place that provides no true alternatives."
"For the past several decades, activists and advocates for disability rights were complacent in our silence. The National Disability Rights Network, included. We fought for and continue to fight for community integration and an end to the abuse and neglect of people with disabilities while neglecting the evidence that segregated settings, sheltered work and sub-minimum wage contradicts this effort. Sheltered workshops are not what they promise to be, and sometimes serve as an unsettling example of how good intentions can lead to terrible outcomes."
"Simply put, sheltered workshops are just another institution segregating people with disabilities away because of our unwillingness to accept that our perceived notions about their ability to work may be wrong."
The report goes on to list and elaborate on several reasons segregated work must end:
Segregated work, sheltered environments, & sub-minimum wage directly contradict national policy.
Work segregation of people with disabilities is damaging.
Sub-minimum wages reinforce a life of poverty for people with disabilities.
Sheltered workshops lead nowhere.
Sheltered workshops profit greatly from the status quo.
In Australia we have gone quiet on this debate and seemingly simply accept that it is OK to have dual systems with luck (good or bad) determining which looks after you. The practice of allowing sheltered workshops to go through our school population trawling for recruits into the State government's Transition to Work program is particularly damaging and should be stopped immediately - those kids are denied any opportunity to leave at the time when their employability and readiness to pick up new skills is at its greatest.
Cheers Dale, I was inspired by your blog.
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Your Comments Patrick Cooper from Brisbane wrote on 22 Nov 2013 12:02:45 PM I recently undertook a pretty extensive research engagement with various Australian Disability Enterprises (ADE), which the author chose to insultingly call "sheltered workshops" and I take umbridge at the complete lack of understanding and appreciation of what these organisations provide. Clearly Dale is completely missinformed regarding the valuable contribution these place provide to those with disability. Many of whom start by working at an ADE recieve training and support and then go on to work in open employment. Sadly many will never have this capability and the author once again fails to appreciate that not every person with a disability will be able to do so. Regardless of how hard we wish it to be. The foolish, narrow minded and clearly missinformed article fails to account for the multiple organisations that deliver quality lifestyle engagement to those with disaqbility by providing them with valued and valuable employment. This provides the participant with social engagement, dignity and a feeling of belonging to and contributing to the community. The article is clearly written with a bias borne from the early 1970s and before the current format of these highly valuable organisations. I find this article an insult to people with disability everywhere.
Martin from St Marys wrote on 23 Nov 2013 1:31:40 PM Thanks Patrick
I appreciate a your different viewpoint and remain firmly convinced thath much more not only can, but needs to be done. For example the recent decision of the High Court of Australia that the tool used by the majority of sheltered workshops to measure the productivity of people with an intellectual disability violates their human rights and is an unfair and inaccurate means of assessing productivity simply affirms what everyone knows - workers are exploited.
The national average wage for people in sheltered settings is a little over $4 an hour.
'Open Employment first' needs to become our minifesto, not 'the good offsets the bad'.
Richard H Douglas from Kent UK wrote on 30 Jan 2014 11:16:20 PM I think Patrick Cooper said most of what i would comment on, and I agree with most of it. As someone who worked as a supervisor/trainer in sheltered workshops in Auckland NZ, I can see both sides of the debate, it is a very complex issue,some clients/trainees will never work in the commercial realm ,while others progress to full employment with understanding employers......But they must not be closed down simply because a few bad eggs exploit the vulnerable. the AED should compel all workshops to become incorporated society's, and not for profit organisations.
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