 |
|
||
 | |||
Our Activities :
Country Activities :Sri LankaSri Lanka is moving forward in its efforts to address workplace rights and the services disabled persons need to exercise their rights, to decent work. The ILO has provided technical assistance to the various Government ministries, the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon and NGOs and co-sponsored meetings and activities to assist in this effort for more than a decade. Employers Network
on Disability In 2000, the ILO sponsored a study tour for a delegation of employers to visit the Employers’ Forum on Disability in the United Kingdom (UK). In 2001, it provided funds and technical assistance to facilitate the development of the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon’s (EFC) Employers' Network on Disability, modelled after the UK Forum. Since that time, the Network has grown and developed into a model initiative to address the training and employment needs of disabled persons and to counter discrimination and social exclusion. The employers, working with their partners, have been leaders in moving the disability issue forward in Sri Lanka and serving as a model not only regionally but globally. In July 2006, the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon launched its Code of Practice on Managing Disability Issues in the Workplace, to media attention and to a crowd of more than 200 employers, government officials, and NGO and disabled persons’ representatives. The programme included presentations by ILO officials, employers, advocates and disabled persons. The Code is the most recent in a series of activities that the EFC and its Employers’ Network on Disability have initiated. After forming, the Network began its activities by sponsoring two employer awareness seminars, surveying its members to determine their records of hiring disabled workers and starting a database on job-seekers with disabilities. Through its newsletter, the Network promotes examples of good practice among its members to encourage the hiring of workers with disabilities. As the Network continued to develop it took a more proactive stance in promoting the hiring of disabled workers. With ILO technical assistance and advice from employers, the Network linked with an NGO called Motivation Trust and with the Ministry of Social Welfare to screen job seekers and assist them in preparing for job interviews. It held another seminar for employers that included a job fair (see report) in the afternoon. Almost 25 of Colombo’s leading companies were present and more than half of the 75 job-seekers found employment at this first job fair. The Network and its partners, which now also include the Ministry of Labour, have organized more job fairs in Colombo, and with funding from the US Agency for International Development, are moving the job fairs into the provinces. The individual employers are not only hiring but providing training and other supports. For example, Sri Lanka Airlines developed a CD-ROM to teach employers participating in job fairs basic sign language so they can communicate with deaf job seekers. ID Lanka Limited has offered repeated English-language training courses for disabled job-seekers, especially those who want to enter IT and financial fields. A local private school is offering IT classes to disabled persons at no cost, on Saturdays, when there IT labs and teachers are free. The EFC formalized the Network with a Constitution in 2005 and its membership is growing, as are its partners. Recently, it is linking with other ILO projects to expand its reach. For example, through the ILO Factory Improvement Programme (FIP), it will train several factories using the new curricula developed in collaboration with AbilityAP, Disability in the Workplace. The ILO’s Accelerated Employment Services (ACS) project will solicit the input of the Network and its partners to launch a major media campaign to locate job-seekers with disabilities. The ACS project is helping to upgrade the JobsNet employment service centres and its computerized job matching programme to respond to needs of tsunami-affected communities. It also has a specific mandate to focus on improving services for disabled persons and plans to integrate disabled job seekers into its database. The Network, its partners, the ACS and FIP projects are forming an excellent collaboration that should result in real benefits for employers and disabled job-seekers. The initial work of the EFC and some of its exemplary employers are featured in the ILO video production, AbilityAsia. Network members have also presented at many forums around the region and at the World Bank in Washington, DC. Promoting the ratification of Convention 159 and other policy initiatives The Ministry of Labour is interested in ratifying ILO Convention 159. In February 2005, the ILO joined with the Ministry to sponsor the seminar Decent Work and People with Disabilities: Policies and Directions for Sri Lanka. Two ILO officials served as resource persons. The workshop provided an opportunity to consider the employment and training provisions of Sri Lanka’s disability policy and to review the draft Disability Act in light of ILO Convention 159. It also was a chance to review the Disability Policy for Sri Lanka and for stakeholders to debate the next steps related to policy implementation and ratification. The workshop resulted in several meeting recommendations, including some that have been realized just over a year later. For example, one recommendation called for the “the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon should develop/adopt a Code of Practice for managing disability in the workplace”, which has already be done. Others said the Government should upgrade vocational training and include disabled persons in employment related and other databases. As some of the other activities in this section will illustrate, progress has been made toward implementing these recommendations. The ILO has worked with the ministries involved in the vocational training of disabled and nondisabled persons to encourage the improvement of vocational training for disabled persons, and more specifically their inclusion in mainstream training. To assist in its efforts to move forward on the issue, the ILO prepared the paper, Integration Trainees with Disabilities into Skills Development Training Programmes: Sri Lanka---Taking First Steps. This paper is offered here since it has relevance for other countries taking immediate and long-range plans in this regard. More recently, the ILO has provided technical assistance to researchers gathering information about the current state of inclusion, as per one of the initial steps outlined in the paper. Additionally, the ILO has provided policy advice on the inclusion of disabled youth in Sri Lanka’s youth policy, provided training to Motivation Trust in job seeking skills training and engaged in many other technical assistance activities. Representatives from Sri Lanka participate in many regional initiatives and activities, such the ILO/ESCAP Multinational Corporation Roundtable, where the EFC, MAS Holdings and Motivation Trust made a joint presentation. The EFC also participated in the Expert Group Meeting on Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Vocational Training, the ILO Technical Consultation related to the PEPDEL project and the ILO/Japan Technical Consultation on Vocational Training and Employment. Sri Lanka was among the 14 countries that were the basis of the ILO country study project. As such, two examples of good practices were selected from Sri Lanka for publication in Moving Forward. To learn more about the status of training and employment of people with disabilities in Sri Lanka, consult the following:
|
||
|
Updated 2008-01-07 |
