Report Finds Government Dollars Used to Segregate and Exploit Workers with Disabilities

For Immediate Release

Contact: David Card | 202.408.9514 x122 | press@ndrn.org

04/03/2012                                                                 

Report Finds Government Dollars Used to Segregate and Exploit Workers with Disabilities

In a report released today, the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) outlined how federal funding is being used to shuttle people with disabilities into sheltered workshops and deprive them of meaningful employment opportunities.

“There is a total disconnect between what governments say they want to accomplish in terms of employment for people with disabilities and how they are actually spending taxpayer dollars,” said Curt Decker, NDRN executive director.

The report, Beyond Segregated and Exploited is a follow up to a report released last year that examined the issue of segregating working people with disabilities in sheltered workshops and the use of the subminimum wage to exploit their disability for the financial gain of employers.  The new report is an update on progress to end those practices and move toward a system that encourages integrated employment options that pay competitive wages.

This report also provides additional insight into the complex and confusing system that pumps millions of dollars into sheltered work despite good national public policy meant to encourage integration and competitive employment.  The report follows money designated to be spent on integrated employment as it winds its way from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to the states, state agencies, and finally into sheltered workshops.

“Admirably the message we hear from federal agencies is about the importance of integrated employment,” continued Decker. “Yet the majority of the money allocated for this purpose actually ends up being spent in facilities that segregate people with disabilities and isolates them from their communities.

“Worse, our investigations over the past year concluded most of these facilities do not teach marketable skills or prepare workers for any type of meaningful work outside of the sheltered workshop.  Instead, they trap workers in endless ‘training’ programs that pay little if anything, leaving the ‘trainee’ impoverished.”

The report calls for:

• Ending segregated employment and the subminimum wage by restricting all federal and state money that is spent on employers who segregate employees with disabilities from the general workforce.
  
• Strengthening current and create new tax incentives for employers to hire people with disabilities in integrated workplaces at comparable wages.
  
• Increasing labor protections and enforcement of existing law.
  

The report, found at www.ndrn.org, is called Beyond Segregated and Exploited: Update on the Employment of People with Disabilities.

Direct link: http://www.ndrn.org/images/Documents/Resources/Publications/Reports/Beyond_Segregated_and_Exploited.pdf

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The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) is the nonprofit membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems and the Client Assistance Programs (CAP) for individuals with disabilities. Collectively, the Network is the largest provider of legally based advocacy services to people with disabilities in the United States.