In the framework of the European project Non-financial reporting directive (2014/95/EU): an opportunity to develop the participation and inclusion rights of people with disabilities and prevent the risk of social dumping. The crucial role of EWCs and Trade Unions, we were able to address the issue of full social and labour inclusion of people with disabilities.
The project partnership deliberately brought together social promotion associa-tions, organisations representing working people and banking companies active in the European Works Councils. The aim was to draw on the various, multiple existing experiences in order to build effective proposals for employment to be carried out within the framework of the European Works Councils to protect equality policies. The project was made more topical by the emergence of new and serious problems connected with the management of Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic has in fact affected the social cohesion of communities, under-mining a very delicate element, (i.e., the element of human and social relations) placing everyone in a condition of physical isolation, and making it harder for those who already needed assistance before the pandemic. The pandemic has accentuated these fragilities and has increased the layers of the European popu-lation experiencing social hardship and poverty. These conditions have only been partially alleviated by the support policies adopted by national governments and supported by the European Union.
The presence in the project partnership of a multiplicity of experiences allowed us to fully analyse the phenomenon of disability-related discrimination, seen as a social and an economic disadvantage directly related to the individual’s situation.
Such discrimination could refer to a one-off behaviour, or to the application of a rule, policy or to the existence of physical or communication barriers that make access to something difficult or impossible. It is clear that intentional discrimi-nation should be considered illegal.
What are some of the most significant contexts where it is necessary to ensure egalitarian and inclusive policies? Certainly: job-seeking; professional develop-ment and training; schools; access to the services of public institutions, public places, justice, personal mobility; more generally, ‘accessibility’ tout court, i.e., as a category of political action.
There are different forms of discrimination: direct, indirect, harassment, victim-isation. The education chapter is safeguarded through the provision of support figures and the strengthening of ordinary teaching staff. There are experiments
of excellence, but in most cases, in schools, it is still complicated to provide ad-equate accompaniment and educational support to people with different disabil-ities, each requiring a specialised and specific approach.
The employment aspect is addressed in the legislation of individual Member States through the provision of tax and contribution instruments to facilitate the hiring of ‘protected’ categories of workers. These instruments are limited to par-ticularly serious situations. Once employed, the individual is probably bound to be penalised professionally.
Moreover, HR structures rarely plan targeted actions to promote their full inclu-sion, introduce the necessary flexibility and adopt the most appropriate techno-logical solutions. In the absence of structured organisational methodologies, most of the time they proceed with ‘common sense’ or ‘reasonable accommoda-tion’ and end up considering people with disabilities as ‘scarcely productive’.
There are no reference standards or quality benchmarks to refer to. The situation is not uniformly addressed in the different Member States.
The development of the project stems from the positive intuition of Directive 2014/95/EU, which requires companies qualifying as large ‘public interest enti-ties’ to prepare and publish a statement, of an individual and consolidated nature, containing, for each financial year, a range of information relating to environ-mental, social, personnel-related, non-financial information and information on diversity.
Thanks to the European legislators and those of the individual Member States who have decreed the application of the directive, a methodology for observing
‘public interest entities’ and large companies has been launched to highlight their social distinctiveness factors. It has become the responsibility of directors to draw up an individual and consolidated statement on the issues raised by the directive. They decide whether to comply or explain. The directive puts in place an initiative that focuses on disclosure and transparency towards stakeholders and has the effect of indirectly determining a factor of competitive advantage for the most advanced companies and bodies as regards ESG – Environment Social Governance – behaviour. This competitive advantage will be perceived in the medium term by investors, determining greater attractiveness for risk capital.
The European legislator, in fact, is finally promoting a series of regulatory inter-ventions that highlight a concentric action aimed at positively affecting and mod-ifying managerial behaviours that are not oriented to the respect of essential val-ues, consistent with the lines of action and with the economic and social objec-tives of the EU.
Among these actions are undoubtedly:
• the new taxonomy for financial products;
• the NextGenerationEU plan: a € 750bn facility endorsed by the Euro-pean Council for recovery and resilience, to help Member States deal
with the economic and social impact of Covid-19 pandemic and to make economies more sustainable and resilient.
EU countries’ projects and reforms should be geared towards green transition, digital transformation, smart-sustainable and inclusive jobs and growth, social and territorial cohesion, health and resilience, and policies for the next genera-tion, including education and skills.
All these actions confirm the common will of the Member States to act quickly in the direction of sustainability and transparency, making European policies geared to greater social cohesion and a rapid and significant growth in terms of inclusiveness. This important regulatory framework puts the social partners in a position to promote the social dialogue on a European level, and in the individual Member States, on issues of particular socio-economic importance, such as di-versity and disability.
The European Works Councils are undoubtedly one of the places where dialogue and constructive dialectics are most advanced. Such places become even more central, in the possibility of strengthening and enhancing their competences, and can become agents of innovation and change.
People with different abilities live their human, social and work dimension in an exceptional way and, precisely because of this exceptionality, it is important that the awareness of these dimensions is increasingly widespread, so that the most advanced tools and methodologies for full human, social and professional inclu-siveness are taken into account in organisational elements and services.
All this concerns the dimension of the individual in the different contexts in which he or she operates and relates, and is about the ability of production struc-tures to look at people more carefully, to consider them not only as workers with an obligation to perform in return for remuneration, but as a unicum as human beings, citizens and workers.
This led to the idea, developed with the project partners from the financial sector and with the associations of the Italian Third Sector, to bring the debate on Dis-ability Management within the EWCs in order to identify the best practices, the best organisational models and the most effective solutions for a full and positive inclusiveness.
This is a project that helps to align company approaches in the various countries.
It is necessary for the social partners to increase managerial competences to face these challenges, as well as the legislators urge, for a transition towards a more sustainable model of society, soliciting the activation of new initiatives, strategies and corporate organisational methods.