Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 82nd ILC session (1995)

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159) - Finland (Ratification: 1985)

The Committee notes with interest the information supplied by the Government concerning various measures undertaken in order to give better application to the Convention, and in particular those aiming at promoting employment opportunities for disabled persons in the open labour market. It also notes the comments of the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) attached to the Government's report. The SAK has noted defects in the practical implementation of the rehabilitation reform and considered mass unemployment as the biggest reason for it, since the opportunities for rehabilitation have been reduced. The Government indicates on its part that the proportion of long-term unemployed disabled persons has increased from 15 per cent to 45 per cent during the period 1989-92. It also states that, as a consequence of mass unemployment, the possibilities of the disabled to find employment in the open labour market are decidedly smaller than at the end of the 1980s. The Government informs that, in this situation, the National Advisory Committee on Rehabilitation, which works in conjunction with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, has been assigned to revise the National Programme for Vocational Rehabilitation adopted in 1987. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would continue to supply, in its future reports, information on practical application of the Convention, as required by point V of the report form, including statistics, extracts from reports, studies and inquiries, related in particular to the above-mentioned problems and comments of the trade unions. Please also continue to supply information on the follow-up of the revision of the national policy, for which the National Advisory Committee on Rehabilitation is responsible, and supply a copy of a report which has to be prepared on the subject, as indicated in the Government's report. Concerning the question of unemployment, the Committee refers to its observation under the Employment Policy Convention (No. 122).