Sheltered workshop

The term sheltered workshop refers to an organization or environment that employs people with disabilities separately from others, usually with exemptions from labor standards, including but not limited to the absence of minimum wage requirements.[1]

Australia

Sheltered workshops are often called Australian Disability Enterprises or ADEs. In Australia, employees with intellectual disabilities make up 75% of the ADE workforce.[2] The Australian Disability Enterprise (ADE) sector in Australia generally has its roots in the early 1950s when families of people with disabilities established sheltered workshops to provide vocational activity for people with disability. At this time employment opportunities for people with disability were extremely limited.[3]

In 1986, following the passage of the Commonwealth Disability Services Act (1986), Australia transitioned from the sheltered workshop system to the new model prioritizing employment for people with disabilities. In 1996, additional reforms were introduced for the purpose of improving service quality, matching service funding to the support needs of people with disability receiving assistance, and to link funding to employment outcomes. This led to a reform agenda in the ADE sector, with the introduction of legislated Quality Assurance standards that required ADEs to obtain independent verification of their compliance to these prior to receiving ongoing funding from the Australian Government. Additionally, a funding model that links payments to individual support needs was introduced.[3]

In some ADEs individuals are paid as little as $1.79 an hour, based on the BSWAT (Business Services Wage Assessment Tool), which was found to be discriminatory in 2013 and will be phased out by April 2015. Wages are based on a percentage of award rates, according to the workplace competencies and productivity of the person with a disability in comparison to a worker without a disability.[4][5]

Following on from the court challenge on the discriminatory nature of the BSWAT, a large percentage of parents and employees of ADEs (along with the relevant Peak Body, National Disability Services) began a campaign to ensure their jobs were protected. Many raised the point that ADEs are not typical workplaces and provide significantly more support and opportunities than open employment workplaces. These parents, carers and Employees were concerned that if ADEs were forced to pay full livable award wages for employees with a disability, many would be financially unsustainable.[6] An episode of the ABC's Background Briefing in September 2014 stated that ADE's either barely make a profit or operate at a loss, and have to compete with low wage labor in other countries, which makes some people concerned that requiring them to pay higher wages will make those they employ unemployed, and unable to enjoy the many non-wage benefits of work like friendships and a sense of societal contribution.[7]

Canada

In Canada sheltered workshops are being phased out for supported employment but remain a predominant vocational model for people with intellectual disabilities, who have an employment rate of less than 30%.[8]

Europe

Sheltered workshops are one of the most common methods for employment across Europe.[9]

United Kingdom

In the U.K., the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act of 1944 founded a company primarily to help returning veterans return to work called Remploy. Remploy founded factories across the United Kingdom. In 1986, 55,000 disabled people had been employed in the factories at some point. However, the UK moved towards mainstream employment, rather than sheltered workshops. By 2013, all Remploy factories were closed.[10][11]

United States

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established a minimum wage in the United States; Section 14(c) of the bill included an exception for people with disabilities, intended to help disabled World War I veterans have opportunities for employment.[12] Employers who wish to pay less than minimum wage must acquire a certificate from the U.S. Department of Labor.[13] The terms "sheltered workshop" and "work center," are used by the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor to refer to entities that are authorized to employ workers with disabilities at sub-minimum wages.[14] These entities are generally non-profit facilities that exclusively or primarily employ people with disabilities, and also provide vocational rehabilitation.[15][16][12]

In 2020, the United States Commission on Civil Rights issued a report which recommends that the minimum wage exemption be phased out because it keeps workers in "exploitative and discriminatory" jobs.[16] The issue of whether sheltered workshops should exist is a contentious issue within the disability services community.[12]: 1  [16] Advocates of disability rights state that the jobs pay low wages and lack advancement training and opportunities, permanently trapping disabled people in those jobs and reducing their independence.[12][16] Supporters of the workshops state that eliminating the minimum wage exemption would eliminate those jobs (because many with severe disabilities cannot perform at the level of an ordinary worker) and the choice to work and thereby enjoy the many non-wage benefits of work (like a sense of pride for their societal contribution), and replace it with adult day care or "glorified babysitting."[12][16]

On a national level, Congressional legislation that would phase out sheltered workshops has been proposed multiple times. Most recently, the Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act (TCIEA) was introduced in 2021.[17]

On a state level, legislative efforts to ban subminimum wage have been more effective. Vermont was the first state to ban sheltered workshops, but numerous states have followed, including Maryland.[18][19]

California

In 2021, California banned organizations from paying disabled people less than minimum wage, giving the agencies who employ disabled workers until 2025 to either pay their workers the statewide minimum of $15.50 per hour or shut down.[12] Advocates of the new legislation feel that subminimum wage programs segregate disabled workers into separate work environments, reduce their independence, and prevent them from learning better job skills which could lead to advancement.[12] Supporters of the sub-minimum wage arrangements feel that it is unrealistic to think that severely disabled individuals will ever be able to produce the same output as ordinary minimum wage workers, and that making it illegal to pay them based on their performance will simply mean that they will be unemployed, and thereby not able to experience the sense of accomplishment that comes from a job.[12] In 2022, less than 20% of developmentally disabled persons in California were employed.[12]

References
  1. May-Simera, Charlotte (2018). "Reconsidering Sheltered Workshops in Light of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)". Laws. 7: 6. doi:10.3390/laws7010006.
  2. "Wage Justice Campaign - People with Disability Australia". pwd.org.au. 13 November 2018.
  3. "Australian Disability Enterprises | Australian Government Department of Social Services". Archived from the original on 2015-03-27. Retrieved 2015-03-23.
  4. "Wage Justice Campaign - People With Disabilities Australia".
  5. "Department of Social Services (DSS) | Australian Human Rights Commission".
  6. "BuyAbility Social Enterprises - Social Procurement Specialists".
  7. "What's fair pay for people with intellectual disabilities?". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 11 December 2013. There are 194 Australian Disability Enterprises or ADEs. The work they do—everything from packing boxes and mowing lawns, to washing sheets and preparing frozen meals—generates more than $730 million each year. More than half of the ADEs make a loss each year, however. Many of the rest barely break even. ... Disability enterprises are competing in very tough markets. They're not-for-profit organisations established specifically to employ people with severe disability, usually intellectual disability, and they're competing with low wage economies overseas. They're barely breaking even, often they're making a loss so you know they're struggling to have the capacity to pay higher wages.' ... Some of them, their productivity really is very low. Their disability is very severe, but they want to work. My view is if they want to work and they gain the benefits of work which are not just wages: which are friendships, social networks, a sense of dignity, a sense of contributing to society; these are very important benefits and people should be entitled to those benefits.'
  8. http://www.readywillingable.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Achieving-social-and-economic-inclusion1.pdf
  9. "Reasonable Accommodation and Sheltered Workshops for People with Disabilities: Costs and Returns of Investments—Study for the EMPL Committee" (PDF). Directorate General for Internal Policies of the European Parliament, Policy Department A. Economic and Scientific Policy, Employment and Social Affairs. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  10. "About Remploy". Remploy.
  11. Saycre, Liz. "Getting in, Staying in and Getting on: Disability Employment Support Fit for the Future" (PDF). Department for Work and Pensions. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  12. Kuang, Jeanne (2023-05-14). "Can California find better paying jobs for people with disabilities?". CalMatters. Opponents of subminimum wage programs like Vistability's say they segregate people who have disabilities, keeping them from obtaining better paying work and greater independence — which they could achieve with the right services to assist them. On the other side, program operators and some workers' families defend the current arrangements, saying these workers would not otherwise have job opportunities. About 20% of people who have developmental disabilities in California are employed, the state's Department of Developmental Services says. ... After they graduated, Goodwill of Orange County placed him, with two or three others, at a clothing company's warehouse and later at a local retailer. They hung clothes on racks, splitting one minimum-wage job. Corey took home $2.50 an hour, his father said. He loved his job and came home feeling accomplished and eager to spend his paycheck, taking his parents out to dinner, Chris Bowers said.
  13. "Subminimum Wage". U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  14. "U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Field Operations Handbook, Chapter 64, 'Employment of Workers with Disabilities at Special Minimum Wages under Section 14(c),' Section 64k, 'Addendum,' Section 64k00, 'Glossary,' 'Sheltered Workshop or Work Center.'". Retrieved 2011-08-29.
  15. "U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Field Operations Handbook, Chapter 64, 'Employment of Workers with Disabilities at Special Minimum Wages under Section 14(c),' Section 64b, 'Coverage,' Section 64b01, 'Enterprise Coverage,' 'Competitive employment.'". Retrieved 2011-08-29.
  16. Selyukh, Alina (2020-09-17). "Workers With Disabilities Can Earn Just $3.34 An Hour. Agency Says Law Needs Change". NPR. The fate of these work programs has been contentious. Disability-rights advocates say the programs limit the workers' potential while using them as cheap labor. But some workers' families and the organizations themselves argue that eliminating them would threaten the well-being of people who are happy to be there and take away their choices.
  17. "Casey, Daines Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Phase Out Subminimum Wage, Increase Competitive Integrated Employment for People with Disabilities | U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania". www.casey.senate.gov. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  18. "Workers With Disabilities Can Earn Just $3.34 An Hour. Agency Says Law Needs Change". NPR. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  19. "Nothing About Us Without Us: From Subminimum Wage to Meaningful Employment in Maryland". Kennedy Krieger Institute.


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