An evaluation of the extent to which Zambian employment legislation and policy provide opportunities for employment and protection from discrimination of the disabled
Date
2013-02-21
Authors
Banda, Apton
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Historically, people with disabilities have been among the most impoverished, politically marginalized and least visible members of their societies globally. There are approximately 650 million disabled people in the world of whom 470 million are of working age. This situation is also true to Zambia as 10 percent of the Zambian population is people with disabilities.The problem statement of this essay is whether the disabled are sufficiently covered by the current employment laws in the provision of equal opportunities for employment and protection from discrimination. The objective of this essay is advocating the widening of the employment laws so as to carter for the needs of disabled who are in employment and those seeking employment. The methodology used was both desk research and conducting interviews with relevant persons to this research. The essay evaluated the Zambian employment legislation, such as the Employment At, the Apprenticeship Act and all the other Acts connected and incidental to employment and the conclusion made was that these Acts do not provide opportunities for employment and protection from discrimination of the disabledThe essay will show the extent and the consequences of discrimination on the disabled such as under employment and unmotivated disabled employees as the consequence of this discrimination. The essay has shown that the most important intervention which the law can affect is to include reasonable accommodation. Reasonable accommodation is adjusting the working environment to suit the needs of the disabled workers. It has been noted that the disabled can participate in development of a country through increase of employee productivity and national performance through a more diversified employee base if the disabled are integrated into employment.The recommendations are that inclusion of disability issues in the Constitution of Zambia and other employment laws is a feasible and technically an easy change to make. This will enhance the legal protection of persons with disabilities in all fields of life including employment. Mandatory Provision of housing to all employees is another recommendation, this will be a motivation to the employees and they will be encouraged to work diligently. This will in turn increase productivity and growth of the economy.
Description
Keywords
Employment legislation---Zambia , Labour policy , Labour laws---Zambia