- Posted on 21 Jun 2023
- 2-minute read
People with disability historically have significantly lower rates of workforce participation than people without a disability. People with an intellectual disability face greater barriers to employment than most other people with disability. This increases the chance of people working in Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs) where they can be legally paid as little as $2.67/hour.
The Disability Royal Commission has highlighted exploitation, discrimination and other injustices experienced by people with intellectual disability working in ADEs and supported employment programs. Human rights violations are also experienced in other countries. Japan, for example, also has segregated workplaces and subminimum wages for people with intellectual disability.
People with an intellectual disability have the right to work on an equal basis with others, and to workplaces that are open, inclusive and accessible. Urgent change is needed to ensure fair pay, open employment and realisation of people’s right to work.
On 16 June 2023, the UTS Disability Research Network, Anti-Slavery Australia, and Law Health Justice Research Centre held an online discussion considering why people with an intellectual disability should be able to work in open employment and why Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs) need to change.
You can view the event by following the link: People with Intellectual Disability and the Human Right to Work
This event is organised by Linda Steele and Simon Darcy of UTS. You can email Linda Steele with any questions: linda.steele@uts.edu.au.
Thank you to the Council for Intellectual Disability and Inclusion Australia.
Want to find out more?
Inclusion Australia’s advocacy:
- https://www.inclusionaustralia.org.au/what-we-do/including-everyone/ - How to sign up for Inclusion Australia’s newsletter to learn more about its work
- https://www.inclusionaustralia.org.au/submission/equal-pay-equal-rights/ - Inclusion Australia’s inclusive employment report, including economic modelling and overseas examples
- https://apo.org.au/node/321816 - Five academic papers that the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne wrote for Inclusion Australia
- https://www.everyonecanwork.org.au/ - More work that Inclusion Australia has done about employment pathways
Council for Intellectual Disability’s advocacy:
https://cid.org.au/membership/ - Help us build a community that protects rights, includes everyone and supports people Become a member of the Council for Intellectual Disability.
https://cid.org.au/event/more-than-just-a-job/ - Learn about how what Leonie’s project does and reach out for one of her and her teams workshops.
https://cid.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Inclusion-in-government-sector-employment.pdf - The government has the opportunity to be the forefront of inclusion right now.
Academic research:
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4187360 - Article on discrimination and exploitation in ADEs
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4324119 - Article on ADEs and modern slavery law