On 6 July 2005, the ILO and ESCAP sponsored a meeting of multinational corporations, governments, NGOs and disabled persons representatives from around the region to start a stakeholder dialogue on the business case for hiring workers with disabilities. Accor, IBM, Marriott Hotels, Nike and Nokia were among the more than a dozen companies and employers’ organizations that sent regional representatives to attend. Mark Bagshaw, Manager of the IBM Australia/New Zealand Accessibility Center, delivered a keynote address on the business case for hiring disabled workers, stressing that people with disabilities are not only good employees but are also viable customers often overlooked by corporations.

A panel of company representatives, including IBM, Nike and Westpac Bank described what they are doing to integrate disabled employees into their workplaces and to consider disabled customers in their design of products and services. A second panel of corporate representatives and their partners in government and the NGO sector described some exemplary and innovative partnerships that result in the training and employment of disabled persons. MAS Holdings, the Employers Federation of Ceylon and Motivation Trust in Sri Lanka, CJ Telenix and the Korean Employment Promotion Agency for the Disabled in Korea, and JW Marriott Hotel and the Hong Chi Association in Hong Kong participated on a panel that illustrated win-win partnerships.

During roundtable discussions that afternoon, the participants identified specific needs and action steps. Of most significance was the desire of companies to form a network to further address these issues and to repeat the meeting with additional participants next year.

The impact of the meeting has included the replication of similar roundtables in China (Shanghai), Hong Kong SAR, and Viet Nam (Hanoi). Several multinational companies have also reported initiatives to increase their hiring of disabled workers. The ILO is monitoring the meeting’s impact on a regular basis and has sent out three official updates of activities to participants and is planning a follow-up meeting in 2007.

For more information about the meeting and its outcome, including a list of participants and the meeting’s background note describing the business case, consult the Unlocking Potential: A Multinational Corporation Roundtable on Disability and Employment Asia and the Pacific---Proceedings of the Meeting.

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