The General Office of the State Council issued the Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting Employment of Disabled Persons (2022-2024) on April 8.
The plan proposes that from 2022 to 2024:
- At least 1 million disabled persons should be newly employed across the country;
- disabled people should receive better vocational skills training;
- the employment rights and interests of the disabled should be better protected.
To achieve these goals, the government at all levels should:
- promote the formation of a good social environment that understands, cares about, and supports the career development of the disabled;
- further clarify the departments responsible for various actions and the division of responsibilities;
- ensure relevant financial expenditure on employment training, employment services, subsidies and incentives for the disabled;
- increase incentives for employers who arrange employment for persons with disabilities in proportion to those required by the Disabled Persons Protection Law;
- rely on the national integrated government service platform and government service agencies at all levels to realize the interconnection of employment data for the disabled;
- monitor and evaluate the implementation of the plan on an annual basis.
At present, there are more than 8 million disabled people who are legally old enough to be employed but have yet to find work. The Action Plan calls on government agencies, state-owned enterprises, social organizations and private companies to take responsibility for solving this problem.
As a response, the Central Propaganda Department, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and other departments made work arrangements on April 13, to take part in the initiative.
China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF)
Zhou Changkui, secretary of the Party Leadership Group and chairman of CDPF attributed the difficulty in finding jobs for the disabled to low levels of education and a lack of professional training.
He demanded that branch federations at all levels take into account the actual local situation and design targeted solutions. He emphasized the necessity of taking action in finding out grassroots data, and in precise and refined services for the employment of the disabled.
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS)
Yu Jiadong, deputy minister, announced that the ministry will introduce policies to encourage employers, technical schools and universities to participate in the development of the skills training system for the disabled.
It will also incorporate the procurement of relevant services for the disabled into the scope of the government-purchased services list, and urge the implementation of various subsidy and funding policies.
Minister Yu said that a series of special activities will be organized, including online recruitment, the collective recruitment of disabled positions, and the running of a disabled recruitment month.
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT)
Wang Peng, first-level inspector of the Information and Communication Administration of MIIT said that, the local subordinate institutions of the department will guide employers, platforms and e-commerce companies to implement the requirements of the Action Plan, based on the actual local situation.
Relevant service fees such as e-commerce platform service fees or bricks-and-mortar chain store franchise fees should be appropriately reduced or exempted for disabled people who start businesses.
All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC)
Li Fei, director of the social service office of ACFIC, proposed giving full play to its role as a platform carrier to guide private companies in new employment forms such as e-commerce and express delivery to meet the employment needs of the disabled, develop targeted positions, and innovate recruitment service models.
Central Propaganda Department (CPD)
Gao Guangzhi, deputy head of the news coordination group of the department requested all branch units carry out dissemination work in four aspects: employment laws and regulations, the Action Plan series of activities, successful employment models, and advanced local policies for the disabled.
According to the Action Plan, 2022 has been designated as a special publicity year for the employment of the disabled, and various forms of activities will be organized this year to increase publicity of the issue, in order to raise the awareness of society.
