Legislating to Employ People with Disabilities: The European and American Way
Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, 1994, Vol.1, No.4, 367-395. DOI: 10.1177/1023263X9400100403
30 Pages Posted: 23 Jul 2018
Date Written: December 1, 1994
Abstract
This article, written in 1994, argues that there is a ‘distinct philosophical and legal difference’ between the approach to promoting the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the open labour market adopted in the United States and that relied on in Europe. It argues that, in the United States, the core of the problem of low employment of people with disabilities is viewed as discrimination, and the legislative response has been the adoption of disability non-discrimination legislation. In contrast, in Europe non-discrimination legislation has not been extended to cover persons with disabilities, but instead the legislative response to this low employment is quota schemes, whereby employers are obliged to ensure that a certain percentage of their labour force are made up of disabled persons. The article argues that the assumptions underlying non-discrimination law and quota schemes are incompatible with each other and that the two approaches are based on the civil rights model on the one hand and the welfare model on the other. The article also argues that the two approaches send out fundamentally incompatible messages about the abilities of workers with disabilities.
Note: Copyright: Publisher and author, 1994. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
Keywords: Disability Discrimination; Disability Anti-discrimination Law; Disability Quotas; Europe; United States of America
JEL Classification: K10; K33; K40; I12
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation