[Archive] Trial Placement Scheme for People with a Disability

Up till 31 October this year, the Selective Placement Division of the Labour Department has placed 273 persons with a disability in trial placement. The trial placement jobs were mostly from the clerical, manufacturing and service sectors, details are as follows :-

The reasons why trial workers were not employed after trial placement can be summarised as follows :-

1. the trial workers' working abilities were not up to the requirement of the employers, or that they had poor interpersonal relationship with other workers, resulting in employers' discontinuation of their employment;
   
   
2. the trial workers were not satisfied with the work nature, work environment, pay and interpersonal relationship at work, and quit their jobs.

   To help improve the interpersonal relationship of disabled employees, the Selective Placement Division will launch a new "Trial Placement cum Mentor Scheme for People with a Disability" shortly. Under the new scheme, the Division will request employers to appoint an experienced co-worker to be the "mentor" of the disabled employees, so that immediate assistance and peer support can be rendered to the disabled employees to facilitate their early integration and retention in the job. If the disabled employees can successfully complete the 1-month trial placement and secure the offer of long-term employment, their respective mentors will be awarded a gift coupon of $500 and a certificate of appreciation as an encouragement.
   

3. In drafting the 1995 White Paper on Rehabilitation Policies and Services, the Working Party on Rehabilitation Policies and Services carried out detailed discussions on the proposals such as introducing a quota system for the disabled and offering tax concessions. It was concluded that, under a quota system, some employers would be forced to employ disabled persons, who might then be seen as a liability of the company. Disabled persons so employed would be unlikely to be accepted and might not be willing to continue working in an unfriendly environment.
   
   At present, under the profits tax regime, all expenses, including salary payment, incurred by the taxpayer in deriving the assessable profits can already be deducted in full from such profits. Therefore, the Government does not support the proposal to increase the existing tax concession to allow an employer of a disabled person to be given a deduction exceeding the actual amount of salary payable.
   
   In view of the above, we have strong reservations about measures such as offering tax concessions and making it a statutory requirement that employers must employ disabled persons up to a certain percentage. We believe that it is more effective and appropriate to find jobs actively for the disabled and make employers aware of the capability of the disabled by means of promotion and education.
   
   To promote public acceptance of people with disabilities, and to enhance their opportunities of open employment, the Selective Placement Division of the Labour Department regularly organizes various public education and promotional activities, including talks, exhibitions, seminars held jointly with employers' associations, presentation of awards to enlightened employers and outstanding disabled employees, and production of radio programmes.
   
   In recent years, the Division has greatly enhanced the efficiency of securing jobs for the disabled and increased the placement rate through various measures, including promotional activities, employment counselling, job matching, job referral and post-employment follow-up services etc. The employment rate of the disabled rose significantly from 40% in 1998 to 58% for the first ten months of this year. The number of people assisted also increased to 3 600 (for the first ten months of this year), with over 2 000 successfully secured employment.