All of us carry some kind of disability. Yet for over 30 million people in central and eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union, those disabilities constitute handicaps that are severe barriers to employment and income security.

Nobody knows the exact number, yet with rising unemployment and worsening levels of poverty, those with recognisable disabilities have suffered acute hardships. Many have been impoverished, and many have lost their jobs.

In 1993 in Ukraine, an estimated 480,000 registered disabled and without work and needing it; in Russia, the number of disabled in employment has fallen by over 400,000, or 40%, in the past three years, even though the vast majority have not been counted in the official unemployment statistics; in the Czech Republic, the unemployment rate of the disabled is three times that of other groups; in Bulgaria, the employment of disabled workers in protected forms of employment has fallen by over 50%. In country after country, the picture constitutes a crisis of enormous proportions. The situation is not, or should not be treated as, a marginal issue.

Albeit defectively, the old system of integration into employment gave workers with disabilities modest social protection. That system has withered, and an effective alternative has yet to emerge. The old "quota" systems are proving unsatisfactory, and "sheltered" jobs and enterprises are under increasing strain.

To assist in the rethinking of policies and to refine a draft Policy Manual, the ILO Central and Eastern European Team organised an international workshop in its conference room on October 19-21. Seven national reports were prepared on the situation of disabled workers in the Czech and the Slovak Republics, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. These described changes in legal rules and institutional mechanisms promoting employment and protecting incomes of people with disabilities. The draft Policy Manual drew on these reports and on comparative studies of policies in the EC and other industrialized countries.

The workshop was opened by the Secretary of State of the Hungarian Ministry of Labour, Gyula Pulay. He emphasized the Government's commitment to finding ways of overcoming the acute social problems being faced by those with disabilities in the country's difficult economic circumstances. In September, the Ministry of Labour had formulated an Action Plan in favour of employment promotion of disabled workers and welcomed the opportunity to discuss feasible policy options.

The workshop brought together experts from western and central and eastern Europe, the ILO's Vocational Rehabilitation Branch and Employment Department, representatives of organizations of disabled people, employers providing jobs to disabled workers, trade unionists and government officials. At the end of extensive discussions, participants agreed on a set of policy recommendations that will be elaborated in the finalised Policy Manual. The workshop was made possible by a grant from the UK Department of Employment, and by financial assistance from the Government of Germany, which is kindly funding the forthcoming international conference at which the final results of the technical work will be presented. The technical work was greatly assisted by the input of Tom Gawn, head of the Disability Services Branch of the UK Department of Employment, although neither he nor the UK Government are responsible for the conclusions or recommendations.

Follow-up Conference in Poland in 1994 The workshop will be followed by a conference organized jointly by the ILO Vocational Rehabilitation Branch, ILO CEET and the Polish Ministry of Labour, to be held in Poznan, Poland on February 22-24, 1994. This will involve senior policymakers from central and eastern Europe, including worker and employer representatives, who will be invited to consider the full range of social protection and labour market policies reviewed in the Policy Manual, which will be presented there as a guidebook for government officials, employers and worker representatives. AN, GS.