Unfortunately, persons with disabilities have frequently been denied the right to work.
Attitudes and assumptions about the capabilities of persons with disabilities often lead employers to the false conclusion that a person’s disability makes him or her less capable and thus disqualifies him or her from being able to perform work-related tasks. This misconception results in persons with disabilities not being hired or only being hired for jobs that do not utilize their knowledge or skills.
Similar attitudes lead employers to believe that some employees with disabilities may be “dangerous” to themselves or others in the workplace or that customers will be offended or feel uncomfortable by the presence of persons with disabilities.
Employers also often assume that the costs of implementing reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities (for example, accessibility features or flexible working schedules) are prohibitively expensive. Some employers use this rationale to pay their employees with disabilities a lower salary than that received by others doing comparable work. In more extreme cases, persons with disabilities may find themselves forced into abusive, exploitative slave-labour or other unsafe working conditions, perhaps with no pay at all.
Alternatively, persons with disabilities are denied opportunities to work in mainstream settings and may have to work in a segregated setting when they might not otherwise choose to do so.
The “right to work” encompasses the right of all people to the opportunity to earn a living by freely choosing or accepting work and to undertake that work in safe and favourable working conditions.
The right to work also includes the right to form and join trade unions, through which people can protect their interests and advocate for safe and favourable working conditions.