Great efforts have been exerted to employ physically-challenged people, including the introduction of new laws to protect their rights, the Labor Ministry said Tuesday. The ministry has encouraged the private sector to employ physically-challenged people and to consider them in any future employment plans. “Hiring of a disabled (Saudi) person by a private-sector company will be counted as hiring of four Saudis,” said Hattab Al-Eneizi, spokesman for the ministry. The statement comes as after a number of disabled citizens complaining about the lack of jobs and the refusal of companies to hire them in technical jobs despite the Labor Ministry's incentives. Some disabled Saudis also claim that most companies don't have special entrances or exits for them and don't provide them with any incentives in terms of salaries. Fahd Al-Amri, who suffers from a hearing disability, said he used to work for a telecom company and had to quit because his symptoms got worse. He brought a medical report to the company to prove his disability, but the company did not care. He regularly goes to the Labor Office looking for a job but has yet to find any. Muhammad Al-Subahi, who has disability in his legs, agreed that the Labor Office is exerting great efforts to give private-sector firms incentives to employ the disabled. However, he says that despite applying in several companies and government agencies he has not been hired. Some say self-employment is the only option for the physically-challenged because running a business from home gives them independence and protects them from added stress. It also saves them the trouble of moving around and gives them flexibile work hours as well as providing them with a good income. Experts say that employers are missing out on a lot of benefits when they refuse to hire disabled people. Dr. Naif Zarah, a professor of the special education department at King Abdulaziz University, said the absenteeism from work for the disabled is 12 percent less than that of healthy people and their productivity is 1 percent higher. “There are some jobs such as carpet manufacturing and leather works which the disabled people can do very well and there are other jobs such as office work which they can do equally well as well,” Zarah said.
