The disability employment quota, between social policy and antidiscrimination

Abstract

Many countries worldwide resort to quotas in order to favour the employment of disabled people. Yet, the quota as a policy tool has an ambivalent meaning: while it has been conceived as an advanced form of antidiscrimination policy tool in domains such as gender and racial inequalities, in the sector of disability, it has tended to be theorized as an outdated measure, belonging to a social welfare perspective opposed to the more recent equalitarian policy frame. This article revisits this theoretical debate on the disability employment quota by shifting the focus from a normative discussion to an empirical investigation of the meanings policymakers have endowed it with. I draw on the case of France, where the quota scheme is a cornerstone of disability employment policy: post–World War I provisions were at the origin of a series of reforms extending and reinforcing the quota, in 1957, 1987 and 2005 – leading to the current 6% disabled worker quota imposed to private and public organizations of 20 employees or more. Tracing the historical trajectory of this policy tool and its uses by means of parliamentary debates and secondary sources, I show how quotas in France have had more complex meanings than what the social welfare versus antidiscrimination dichotomy suggests. Before the rise of antidiscrimination policy, they were thought of as a progressive form of social policy, as opposed to more segregative interventions such as pensions or sheltered employment. The adoption of antidiscrimination provisions in 2005 then led to a hybridization between quotas and antidiscrimination policy.

Disability and employability in the audio-visual sector: the (dis)connection between corporate social sustainability goals and the employment experiences of people with disabilities

“…The findings also indicate some mistrust among PwD regarding the reserve quota in the workforce, as many of them believe this measure is incapable of guaranteeing their permanence in the labour market if it is not accompanied by follow-up control mechanisms. Consequently, it has been verified that the quota system is outdated and does not conform to the current egalitarian framework (Revillard, 2023), nor does it provide practical opportunities for labour participation (Jochmaring;York, 2023). Companies could enable the social integration of PwD in the work environment (TB7-T2) by offering support to their HR hiring managers (T7.2-TB2).…”

“…As such, it seems that legal obligations do not create real opportunities for them (Jochmaring;York, 2023). In fact, the reserve quota aimed at increasing the employment of PwD is considered an outdated policy tool which, far from the current egalitarian framework (Revillard, 2023), reinforces discrimination against them (Huang, 2023).…”