The Employment of People with Disabilities as Office Employees in the Public Administration in Poland

Abstract

Unemployment among people with disabilities of working age is a problem throughout Europe, including Poland. Here, the national employment rate is only 26.5%, almost twice as low as the European Union average. Private sector is the main workplace for people with disabilities in Poland. In the last decade, hope for improvement in the employment situation of this social group has been discerned in the public sector. Legislation obliging employers to employ people with disabilities and giving people with disabilities priority in public sector employment was expected to mobilize them. The article verifies the compliance of the state of practice with the current law within the framework of the title issue. The article presents basic legal regulations in the field of employment of people with disabilities in the public administration including civil service, both international and national. It then presents the recruitment procedure for civil servant positions in the public administration. The paper concludes with a presentation of the state of the practice of hiring people with disabilities in the public administration, distinguishing between systemic barriers, barriers on the part of public employers and barriers on the part of people with disabilities.