Handicapped Workers

An handicapped worker is a person whose reduced physical or mental abilities are an obstacle to obtaining or retaining a job.

In order to benefit from measures favorable to disabled workers, the status of handicapped workers must be recognized by the Committee on the Rights of Self-Employed Persons with Disabilities. It is also recognized after a procedure of recognition of the quality of handicapped worker.

It is now referred to as disability cumbersome. Recognition of the disability burden allows the disabled employer or worker to receive further aid.

Several types of jobs for handicapped workers

The recognition of the disabled worker status provides certain advantages. The occupational integration of the disabled worker is favored and adapted to the disability burden. Some establishments favor the reception of handicapped workers:

* in an ordinary environment: working from home for the disabled via Home Work Distribution Center or an adapted company, or disabled work in the public service;

* in an environment protected by work in establishments that employ exclusively handicapped workers.

The rights of handicapped people at work

In labor law, the disabled worker benefits from two types of measures.

Common law measures

Common law measures, that is to say identical to those of any worker and whose application is strictly controlled:

* the wage of the handicapped worker: whatever the workplace, the disabled worker benefits from the principle of guaranteed remuneration, but the nature of his remuneration varies according to the type of company in which he works;

* the principle of non-discrimination of disability: the law guarantees equal treatment of disabled workers in the field of access to employment, in cases of discrimination, they have several remedies;

* the right to training for the handicapped worker: he may undertake a training course of common law or a specific training, exclusively for handicapped workers recognized as such at the end of the recognition of the quality of handicapped worker procedure.

Specific measures for handicapped workers

These specific measures concern:

* the retirement of the disabled worker: he can benefit from an early retirement from the age of 55 or higher;

* the dismissal of the handicapped worker: he has a protective dismissal scheme and can not in any case be dismissed on the ground of his disability.

Aid for handicapped workers: Departmental House for Handicapped People

The status of handicapped worker gives rise to the right to a favorable professional integration. Disabled workers benefit, in particular, from financial aid to compensate for their disability. Departmental House for Handicapped People help which consists for example:

* vocational integration assistance;

* aid for professionalization and apprenticeship contracts;

* retention aids, etc.

It benefits the handicapped employer and/or worker.

Departmental House for Handicapped People assistance consists of financial, human and material assistance for the handicapped worker.

Employer: employment of disabled workers

Employers are required to comply with a number of obligations and procedures for the employment of persons with disabilities.

Employer obligations: 6% of disabled workers

Employers who meet the legal requirements are required to employ disabled workers. This obligation enables handicapped workers who wish to work in the ordinary environment to obtain the job more easily. Each year, employers must complete a declaration of workers with disabilities that enables the state to know if they are meeting their obligations. If they do not fill them, or not fully, they must pay the tax of Departmental House for Handicapped People.

Good to know: the Law for growth, activity and equal economic opportunities, extends the possibilities of employers to meet their obligation to employ handicapped workers.

Employment contract for handicapped workers

Handicapped workers benefit from specific employment contracts adapted to their disability and intended to encourage employers to hire them: the unique integration contract and the apprenticeship contract.

The good practices of the employer of a disabled worker

The employer is required to comply with "good practices", in particular for:

* the recruitment of a disabled worker: the recruitment of a disabled worker follows the same process as that of a valid worker, but he/she benefits from certain advantages;

* the insertion of disabled workers in their companies: employers must implement the necessary means to accommodate disabled workers through the layout of the workplace and that of working time;

* training on disability: to better know and understand the challenges of disability in the workplace, employers or companies' HRDs are advised to take appropriate training.

Handicapped workers: who to contact?

The disabled worker as well as the employer have the possibility to be supported by many interlocutors:

* The association for managing the fund for the professional integration of people with disabilities. It has a role of advice, training, guidance, management of financial aid.

* The departmental house for handicapped people. It manages administrative procedures for handicapped workers.

* The institutions and services of assistance by labor. They enable persons with disabilities who can not work in an ordinary environment to work in a protected environment with a medico-social follow-up.