Originally published here.

Persons with disabilities are part of the populationwith the highest possibility to become poor inworldwide. Poverty in disability issues began on barriers to access equal opportunity inemployment (Toening, 2012; Pletzen, Booyens, andLorenzo, 2014). Yet, work is a crucial issue for persons with disabilities to survive and gain socialrecognition. (Nota, Santili, Ginevra, and Soresi,2013; Magoulios and Trichopoulou, 2012)Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration statedthat the number of labor force disabilities or personswith disabilities who are in the productive age inIndonesia in 2010 reached 7,126,409 people(Sulistyawati, 2015), but 63% of them just does notwork (Jimbon, 2010).

People with disabilities are generally consideredas incapacitated in the workforce, so they oftenexperience exclusion to participate in employmentopportunities. (Ruhindwa, Randall, and Cartmel,2016). Whereas, as a citizen of Indonesia, the status,rights, obligations, and the role of persons withdisabilities is the same as other citizens. Exclusionof persons with disabilities in the employmentsector is visible from discrimination in theworkplace, stigma, prejudice and stereotypes of society (ITC 2010; Kuznetsova, 2012; Ruhindwa,Randall, and Cartmel, 2016).

To reduce the problem of employment of personswith disabilities, some countries such as Europe andAsia have adopted a quota system of work whichrequires public and private companies to employ persons with disabilities (Mori and Sakamoto,2017), as well as Indonesia.

In article 53 of Law No. 8 Year 2016 about Persons with Disabilities,Indonesia clearly allocate employment opportunities for persons with disabilities by providing a quota of 2% of their workforce in Government, LocalGovernment, State-Owned Enterprises, and Local Owned Enterprises, as well as the quota of 1% ofemployees in private companies.However, the formal sector which employs people with disabilities is still very low(Rikin, 2012). Only a few of large companies arewilling to accommodate people with disabilities as aworkforce. That was below the amount of provisions by law, even some companies in Indonesia are stilldon’t know at all about the laws that define therights of persons with disabilities to gain employment in the company with a quota of 1: 100,this is what causes the company did not open thewidest access to persons with disabilities who wishto apply for a job at his company (Coleridge, 1997).

Employers also employ persons with disabilities because they are in a condition of admission gets aquota of 1%, not because of their ability to work andskills. (Pitakasari, 2012), even in practice, employersoften prefer to pay fines rather than reach theirquota (Mori and Sakamoto, 2017; Aurelian, etal., 2016). This means that the allocation of laborwith disabilities to work in the formal sector is notenough, so there should be efforts to realize theinclusion of labor markets for persons withdisabilities that is practices that integrate personswith disabilities into the workforce. This is becoming an increasingly common thing, but thereare still many who doubt the competence of thisworkforce.This paper discusses about how to realize thelabor market for persons with disabilities, whetherinclusion or exclusion. It is useful to know howgovernment and public and private companies in therealization of the labor market for persons with disabilities.

The appropriate labor market for people withdisabilities is the inclusion that meets the followingaspects: recruitment, vocational training, attitudes ofthe working environment, income, duration ofemployment, access to social protection and health,and voice. Where any persons with disabilities areincluded to get their rights in the labor market asthose who did not experience disabilities, withoutany differences in their treatment. This is important because inclusion has a major contribution toeconomic growth, social capital and the widercommunity not only for persons with disabilitiesthemselves, but also for businesses, and evencountries. Therefore, in order to realize inclusivelabor market for persons with disabilities, there needa cooperation between government and privatesector to accommodate persons with disabilities inthe workforce. Conditioning work environment isalso important for the people with disabilities to beworking, therefore the need for a positive attitudefrom both superiors and colleagues within acceptingand treating the labor with disabilities. In addition,the regulation in the employment sector for the people with disabilities need to be sharpened inevery aspect of the job, so that the rights of workerswith disabilities in every aspect can be protectedand fulfilled until they reached an inclusive labormarket for persons with disabilities.

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