Conference held within the project “Training and employment to social inclusion”

Montenegro needs to make additional efforts to increase the number of people with disabilities (PWD), and the sustainability of the social inclusion process is crucial, it was assessed at the conference of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM) held on October 3, 2017. years in Podgorica.

Ten PWDs are involved in the project “Training and Employment to Social Inclusion” implemented by CEDEM, the Center for Foreign Languages ​​and Translation Double L and the Media Institute with the support of the Employment Service of Montenegro, and six of them will be hired.

The director of CEDEM, Milena Bešić, said that in Montenegro, according to statistics, there are more than ten percent of citizens with some form of disability, and there are about five thousand PWDs at the Employment Bureau.

“These are people who have registered with the bureau. But there are a large number of PWDs who are not on the bureau. We all have to make additional efforts to change those numbers, because that is our obligation as a society, “Besic explained at the PR Center.

The reasons that affect the problem of employment of PWDs, in his opinion, can be found in the expressed prejudices and stereotypes among employers.

“The reasons may be the low level of education of PWDs, perhaps the lack of appropriate knowledge and skills, as well as the lack of support services,” said Besic.

The assessment, as she added, is that the treatment of PWDs is worse today than four years ago, and that, as she said, shows that what has been done so far is not enough or is not adequate.

The Vice President of the Union of Employers of Montenegro, Slaviša Šćekić, believes that, for a long-term solution, the most important thing is the sustainability of the process of social inclusion of PWDs.

He added that great efforts are needed, so that all people are treated equally from start to finish.

“We need to make the will and efforts to educate people who have any shortcomings in a planned and deliberate way, to find their space and to make their place economically sustainable.” “I think that together we can multiply the results so far only by precise planning, employment, and respect for all relevant factors that come with inclusion,” said Scekic.

Stanko Laković, Independent Advisor for Employment of Persons with Disabilities at the Employment Bureau of Montenegro, assessed that the Law on Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities provides great benefits to employers who employ PWDs.

“We have a salary subsidy for the employment of PWDs, a subsidy that refers to participation in financing the personal expenses of an assistant, ie a work assistant to a PWD employee. The third subsidy is attractive to employers and it is about non-refundable funds for adjusting the workplace and working conditions of PWDs “, said Laković.

He pointed out that there are 194 employers who are entitled to a wage subsidy for 310 people with disabilities, of which 197 people are employed for an indefinite period of time.

Deputy Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms, Sinisa Bjekovic, said that the state not only refrains from interfering in the private sphere of individuals, but its obligation, as he assessed, is to encourage economic and social issues when it comes to PWDs.

“We do not have precisely defined indicators, nor obligations that the state needs to fulfill, in order to achieve an effect with appropriate policies or other measures, and that is the protection of the economic and social rights of PWDs,” Bjekovic explained.

He reminded that Montenegro has ratified almost all key instruments in the international legal order, noting that there is no legal gap, but there is a greater or lesser degree of realization of human rights and freedoms.

The project coordinator at CEDEM, Ognjen Markovic, said that the goal of the project “Training and Employment to Social Inclusion” is to contribute to social inclusion, higher employability, increase the competitiveness of PWD in the labor market, and raise awareness of employers and the public about PWD employment.

“The target group of the project are PWDs who are on the records of the Employment Bureau, aged 18 to 55, as well as employers from the territory of Podgorica with business for more than ten years who have over ten employees,” Markovic explained.

As he explained, the project is divided into a training program and work engagement.

“The training program consists of two educational modules. The first consists of short workshops and trainings on working on computers and excel, then training on communication skills and business correspondence, and at the end of the month we will have training on project writing. The second educational model will include an English language course, “Markovic said.