To guarantee a real choice for disabled workers, sustainable aids to adapt positions to their needs and capacities should be accessible to all employers, and not only to specialized establishments.
The convention relating to the rights of disabled people (Cdph) adopted in 2006 by the United Nations today clearly calls for their inclusion in an ordinary environment. It even promotes uninstitutionalization, that is to say the closure of specialized establishments and the global accessibility of the company. In terms of employment and work, article 27 of the Cdph Pose that “ States parties recognize disabled people, on the basis of equality with others, the right to work, in particular the possibility of making a living by doing freely chosen or accepted work on an open labor market, promoting inclusion and accessible to disabled people ». Thus, the Cdph Promotes the inclusion of disabled people in an ordinary environment and disapproves of traditional protected work workshops.
The Protected sector, however, has an important place in the French professional integration system for disabled people. Today there are some 1,500 establishments and support services by work (ESAT), offering 119,830 seats and accompanying 125,650 people. The population welcomed in ESAT is particularly distinguished from that of employment in ordinary areas: people in ESAT are mainly concerned by intellectual impairment (70.9 %) and mental disorders (21.5 %) while in ordinary environment, disabled workers rather have motor disabilities (38 %) and very few intellectual disabilities or serious mental disorders (only 6 %) (Revillard, 2019).
Also, although the employment rates of disabled workers in ordinary companies increase, the inclusion of disabled people remains difficult. This inclusion involves adaptation of workstations to the needs and capacities of disabled workers, but only work -by -work (ESAT) and adapted businesses are currently doing the means to do so.
This adaptability of these specialized actors is particularly due to aid to the position they receive for each disabled worker. This assistance in the position contributes to compensating for the consequences of the handicap and the actions undertaken linked to their employment and allows ESAT and adapted companies to limit their productivity requirements. In adapted business, disabled workers have common law employment. They are subject to labor law and at least perceive the minimum wage. The amount of assistance to the position paid to adapted companies varies according to the age of disabled workers between 15,400 euros (under 50) and 15,600 euros (56 and over) per year. In ESAT, disabled workers are not employees, but users of the medico-social sector. Therefore, they do not perceive the minimum wage, but guaranteed remuneration. According to figures from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) and the General Inscreection of Finance (IGF) provided in their report on the ESAT in 2019 and updated with the values of 2025, a full -time ESAT person receives an average remuneration of € 1,077.82 gross (against € 1,766.92 for the minimum wage) per month made up of direct remuneration equal to 10.32 % of the minimum wage and aid in the post up to 50.7 % of the minimum wage.
Employers in the ordinary sector, private companies and public organizations, do not have equivalent aids. The financial aid available (subsidized contracts, recognition of heaviness of disability, etc.) are all fixed -term. To use them in a sustainable manner, employers therefore expect disabled workers, whether they are as productive as others. This constitutes a brake in the courses of people who wish to leave specialized establishments. So that disabled workers can truly choose their workplace as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it would be necessary for all employers to have permanent aid to employ them.
The proposal
Make private employers benefit as a public in long -term salary grants making it possible to compensate for the costs linked to the adaptation needs and the reduced work capacities of certain disabled people.
How does it work
The current recognition of heavy disability should be consolidated (RLH) paid by the Association for the Management of the Fund for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities (AGEFIPH) by perpetuating the aid available to private employers and opening them to the public sector. There RLH Allows businesses and self-employed workers to benefit from aid for three years to compensate for the perennial expenses induced by disability after optimal workstation of the workstation. This aid takes the form of a modulation of the contribution to AGEFIPH or the payment of employment aid of disabled workers. It should not only be able to lengthen the duration, but also to be able to grant it more widely. In 2023, according to the Agefiph activity report, there were only 7,509 beneficiaries of the RLH. To date, the RLH only exists for the private sector and it would be advisable to create an equivalent for the public service.
At the signing of an indefinite contract with a disabled worker presenting a lower objectified productivity, requiring the implementation of the aid of a third party or a tutoring, or whose employment implies other additional costs generated by disability, the company would obtain the right to help from the public employment service up to the reduction of capacity and the compensation needs of the person. The amount of aid could reach in some cases 50 % of the minimum wage. Initially, in connection with the objective of transition to the ordinary environment, this aid would primarily target workers out of ESAT or adapted business.
On what research work is the proposal founded ?
The work conducted on the professional integration system for disabled people in France show that work -by -work support establishments and services (ESAT) and adapted companies are able to adapt work to the needs and capacities of disabled workers they employ.
Research relating to the support of disabled people show that once taken care of by the disability sector, they are struggling to get out to go or return to the ordinary environment. Also, children educated in the medico-educational institute (Imme) are generally oriented towards the protected work sector. This is called “ sector effect ». However, there is an aspiration of people concerned today to go to the ordinary environment and political orientations to promote inclusion in ordinary environment.
The study of the Swedish case shows that the aid available for all employers facilitate the employment of disabled people in an ordinary environment, including those with reduced capacity levels.
How to implement
The extension in time and to the public sector of the recognition of heaviness of the handicap would imply registering this measure in the law.
The implementation of the measure would be based on the public employment service and the departmental houses of disabled people who are in charge of the orientation of disabled people. Negotiated between the employer and the public employment service under the supervision of the departmental houses of disabled people, the amount of assistance in the position is based on an assessment of the worker’s capacities and the adaptations necessary to compensate for the disability of the person. The aid would be regularly evaluated to ensure that it still corresponds to the worker’s capacities, but above all to ensure that the worker actually benefits from the expected compensation measures.