The human right of persons with disabilities to non-discrimination in the Maltese employment sector : a legal perspective

Abstract

Anti-discrimination legislation is fundamental for the protection of the human right of persons with disabilities seeking employment opportunities and those already in gainful employment. In recent years, Malta has adopted a number of international and European legal instruments prohibiting disability employment discrimination. However, inspite of the wide range of existing legislative protection enjoyed by Maltese persons with disabilities, nowadays they still find major barriers in accessibility to the labour market and also at the workplace. The primary scope of this dissertation is to review existing anti-discrimination disability employment legislation, to identify the barriers faced by persons with disabilities in the local employment sector, to determine the possible factors contributing to these barriers and to offer possible suggestions on how to improve the accessibility of persons with disabilities in the labour market. Extensive statistical data has been gathered from various local and international sources and several personal interviews have been conducted with local disability employment practitioners. The analysis of the available data and information confirms that Maltese persons with disabilities suffer discrimination in the employment sector and that, inspite of the considerable efforts of Government to promote the local disability employment sector through various schemes and incentives, the situation of persons with disabilities has not improved. This research study also highlights that, although this situation is partly due to the inherent work limitations experienced by persons with disabilities on account of their own impairments and generally low level of education, it is also a consequence of the negative attitude of many employers towards engaging persons with disabilities. The study also suggests that the optimal approach to promote employment opportunities for persons with disabilities in Malta should involve a combination of law enforcement mechanisms and soft law voluntary initiatives.