Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159) - China (Ratification: 1988)

Articles 2, 3 and 5 of the Convention. Implementation of a national policy on vocational rehabilitation and employment of people with disabilities. The Committee welcomes the detailed information provided by the Government in relation to the laws, regulations, programmes, and policies adopted during the reporting period, such as the Outline for Accelerating the Process Towards Prosperity for Persons with disabilities during the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan Period. The Outline stipulates the goals, policies, and measures on promoting the rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities from 2016 to 2020. These goals include inter alia: (i) promoting programmes to improve vocational skills of person with disabilities; (ii) implementation of employment programmes for person with disabilities in Government agencies; (iii) establishing entrepreneurship incubators for persons with disabilities; (iv) and increasing the number of model institutions for the supportive employment of person with disabilities. The Committee notes with interest that, according to the Government’s report, that implementation of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan has led to an increase in the number of registered employed persons with disabilities in urban and rural areas by an additional 1.425 million persons, resulting in a total of 8.627 million persons with disabilities in employment (a 53.6 per cent employment rate). The Committee notes that, in its efforts to promote the employment of persons with disabilities, the Government consults the China Federation of Persons with Disabilities, the representative organization of persons with disabilities in China, as well as employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide detailed updated information, including statistical data disaggregated by age and sex, on the nature, scope and impact of the measures taken to promote productive, sustainable and freely chosen employment for persons with disabilities, including employment and vocational rehabilitation programmes and active labour market policy measures focussing on promoting the employment of persons with disabilities in the open labour market.

Article 4. Equality of opportunity and treatment. The Government indicates that the Regulation on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities stipulates that employing units shall provide workers with disabilities with working conditions and protections appropriate to their physical condition and shall not discriminate against workers with disabilities in terms of promotion, titles, remuneration, social protection, and social welfare. The Committee nevertheless notes that the Government does not provide information on the application of the principle of equality of opportunity and treatment between men and women with disabilities. The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide updated information, including statistical data disaggregated by age and sex, on the nature, scope and impact of measures taken to give effect to Article 4, with a view to ensuring equality of opportunity and treatment in employment and occupation between persons with disabilities and persons without disabilities, as well as between men and women with disabilities.

Article 8. Services in rural areas and remote communities. The Government indicates that two programmes to support the provision of employment services in rural areas for persons with disabilities were implemented concurrently during the reporting period. The “Sunshine Base for Poverty Alleviation” programme seeks to promote stable employment. It also provides practical skills and training for 500,000 persons with disabilities in poverty in rural areas in central and western China. The second programme seeks to alleviate poverty among persons with disabilities in rural areas. In this respect, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that it has fulfilled its goal of lifting all persons with disabilities in rural areas who are registered in its database, out of poverty. The Government also indicates that the Opinions on the Work of Strengthening and Expanding the Results of Poverty Alleviation for Persons with Disabilities has been published, with the aim of preventing persons with disabilities from slipping back into poverty. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide updated and detailed information, including statistical data disaggregated by age, sex and region, on the nature, scope and impact of the vocational rehabilitation and employment services, including the training and professional guidance services, available to persons with disabilities in rural areas and remote communities.

Article 9. Training of suitably qualified staff. The Committee notes that, during the reporting period, the professional training institutions in the country have trained 2,500 employment counsellors who provide support services to persons with mental and psychological disabilities to assist them in accessing employment. The Government indicates that, in 2020, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security approved a new subcategory of “employment counsellor for persons with disabilities” under the job category of “employment counsellor”. The Government adds that the China Federation of Persons with Disabilities is actively collaborating with the Ministry to expand the pool of employment counsellors and to promote their professional development. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide detailed updated information, including disaggregated statistical data, on the nature and impact of measures taken or envisaged to ensure the availability of suitably qualified staff responsible for the vocational guidance, education and training, as well as the employment of persons with disabilities on the open labour market.