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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 APRIL 2016 News 11 MEA to sign agreement on much discussed disability quotas MARTINA BORG THE Malta Employers Associa- tion and the government will be signing a memorandum of under- standing about a number of con- tentious issues surrounding the government's decision to enforce a law that 2% of the workforce of companies employing over 20 peo- ple must be composed of people who have a disability. The measure, when announced, was immediately met with resist- ance from employers who voiced concerns about issues including what classifies as a disability to- wards reaching the quota, as well as the efficacy of such a measure in encouraging inclusiveness. Under the rule to be enforced, companies who don't fulfil the disability quota by 2017, will have to pay an annual €2,400 for every disabled person they should be employing, capped at €10,000. The law also stipulates that employ- ers who do not reach the quota will have to pay a third of the fee for 2015, and half the fee in 2016. Funds generated through this ini- tiative will go to the National Fund for Integration of People with a Disability. "We are currently finalising our drafts of the memorandum, and moving towards an imminent con- clusion and ultimate signing of the agreement," MEA director general Joe Farrugia told MaltaToday. Farrugia explained that the memorandum, a result of nego- tiations involving the MEA, the Employment and Training Corpo- ration (ETC) and the Chamber of Commerce, would provide a way forward as it settles various con- tentious issues in the law. "We have always supported measures that support having more people with a disability in the workforce, but we think the aim of these measures should nev- er be revenue collection," Farrugia said, pointing out that there were already some 700 companies that conformed to the quota, and that none had shown real resistance to the law. However, Farrugia point- ed out that some companies might still opt for paying the fine rather than employing someone with a disability under the rule. One of the suggestions of the memorandum will be removing the fines for employers who did not meet the quota until 2015, and enforcing the fines starting from 2016 "to allow employers more time to satisfy the necessary criteria", Far- rugia said, explaining some of the details of the understanding. "Among the proposals of the document, is the creation of a clear definition of what classifies as a disability, as well as the es- tablishment of a single register for people with a disability," Farrugia said. He explained that having more than one regis- ter often resulted in confusion, with em- ployers often being unaware whether their employees were registered for their disabil- ity or not. Earlier this year, the associa- tion had also made a suggestion to gain access to information (namely the identity) from ETC and KNPD about their employees who have a disability, in order to determine whether or not they satisfy quotas. However, under the current ETC act, drafted in 1990, employers are not permitted to know the identity of employees who are registered with the ETC or with the Na- tional Commission Per- sons with Disability (KNPD) as having a disability. Farrugia ex- plained that whether or not a person registers as having a disa- bility with either authority, rightly, depends on the person in ques- tion, and that the new register should be run with the same prin- ciple. "As a result of the optional na- ture of registering, however, if a person who clearly has a disability isn't registered as such, employers might mistakenly think they fulfil the quota when they don't," he said, stressing that the association still felt it was important to have access to the identity of those reg- istered. "It is also in the interest of the employees themselves," Farrugia said, adding that health and safety both of the disabled employees themselves and of other employ- ees, could be better safeguarded. In a previous communication, Farrugia had explained that it would not suffice for employers to know the number of employ- ees with a disability they had un- der their charge, because knowing their identity was ultimately "a source of proof", just in case they were taken to court for not ob- serving the quota. MEA director general Joe Farrugia: "The aim of these measures should never be revenue collection PHOTOGRAPHY BY DENISE SCICLUNA