Theoretical and Practical Foundations on the People with Disabilities Labor Law in Romania

• Author: Diana- Mihaela Malinche
• Pages: 348-365

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2018

348

Theoretical and Practical Foundations on the People with Disabilities

Labor Law in Romania

Diana- Mihaela Malinche1

Abstract: Labor law is one of the most important issues of law both national and international level. In this

study we will examine the area of labor law and social security labor law by profiling the study of this field in

the segment of socio- professional protection and integration of people with disabilities at national level. The

economic changes as well as the social changes that have occurred in our country during the last years had a

significant impact over the population, especially among people with disabilities. In order to reduce the

impact of economic fluctuations over the people with disabilities, the Romanian authorities complied to the

international requirements and actively promotes social policies to ensure the integration of the disadvantaged

people in the community and preventing the emergence of social barriers that restrict the implication of the

affected people to social life. The implication of Romanian st ate in t he socio- professional insertion of

disadvantaged pe ople can be considered a preventive form of social protection designed to avoid social

initiation as well as avoiding the complete disruption of social relations between societies and people with

disabilities.

Keywords: labor law; social security labor law; people with disabilities; integration; social protection

1. Introduction

In order to collect and interpret the necessary data for the preparation of the present research, we will

use the “content analysis” research method, taking into account the theoretical concepts of labor law at

national level as well as the legislative provisions adopted over the time in order to consolidate the

people with disabilities acces on the labor market and, implicitly, their socio- professional integration

in the society. Content analysis is considered to be “a set of qualitative and quantitative research

techniques, both verbal and nonverbal communication for the objective description and systematic

identification and description of the content of the manuscript and/ or of the attentive content, in order

to draw conclusions about the individual and society communication itself, as a process of societal

inter-action”. (Chelcea, 2007, p. 573) As a matter of course, we intend to make a correlation between

the general law and labor law and the measures adopted by the law maker to support and develop the

social inclusion of people with disabilities. Moreover, labor law has been frequently used to establish

workplaces between people with disabilities and asylum seekers in order to support their social

insertion as well as to eliminate all kinds of discrimination between the social classes.

This produces a particularly complex phenomena of working conditions in optimum conditions, with

benefits for both the employers and the employees with disabilities. In order to achieve this objective,

the Romanian state significantly contributes to socio- professional inclusion of people with

1 Master Student, Faculty of Law, Danubius University of Galati, Romania , Address: 3 Galati Blvd., Galati 800654,

Romania, Tel.: +40372361102, Corresponding author: diana.malinche@yahoo.com.

ISSN: 2067 – 9211 The Youth of Today - The Generation of the Global Development

349

disabilities, providing both the legal and the financial support necessary for the provision of

professional activities by this social class, as we will see in this study. The social measures promoted

by the Romanian authorities in view of the socio- professional insertion of people with disabilities that

we will present in this paper, prove to be extremely useful for the societies, as we will observe. By

means of this measure, the social and professional situation of the affected persons is improved, on the

one hand, and the potential of the social policy is appreciated in the interest of the community, on the

other hand. In order to achieve this objective, the Romanian state established for the first time, by

Ordinance no. 14/ 2003 the National Authority for People with Disabilities (ANPD). One of the main

contributions of the ANPD is the application of national strategies for the special protection of the

people with disabilities, as well as approving all the necessary nor mative powers for the development

and application of the strategy. The first protection strategy for people with disabilities was funded by

the National Authority for People with Disabilities in 2003's and included in its content a national

action plan for the 2003- 2006 timeframe. By mea ns of the action plan with long- term objectives,

there were proposed “reforms of the system of protection of people with disabilities, focusing on the

evacuation and individualization of intervention, restructuring of residential institutions, creation of

alternative services, consolidation of the parentage between public and private institutions and

increasing the competencies of local authorities. The main objective of the national strategy was the

creation of a continuous integrated protection and support system for people with disabilities, through

the reform of the central institutions administration and the institutional reform of the field, in view of

the increasing the life quality of the affected people.” (Neamţu, 2003, p. 962) The focus of the

strategies development for protecting the people with disabilities has been manifested in recent years

as national strategy named “A barrier- free society for people with disabilities in the period 2015-

2020”. Thus, through the a doption of this strategy, the Romanian State is obliged to mobilize all the

financial, social, legislative available resources to prevent the marginalization, discrimination and

violation of people with disabilities rights. As highlighted in the above, in the present, the socio-

professional insertion of people with disabilities as well as the impr ovement of their living conditions

was convinced.

In support of my assertion, the results obtained after the “A barrier- free society for people with

disabilities in the period 2015- 2020” national strategy implementation highlighted the fact that “There

are a million people suffering by a form of disability. Of these, between 100 and 190 million people

face an important functional limitation. It is argued that the number of people with disabilities will

increase in the future, among the factors that cause the global phenomena of population aging, the

increase in average lifetime and the exposure of non- incurable diseases.”1 In order to have an insight

view into this issue, we mention that we had chosen to investigate this topic because we considered

that society’s interest in socio- professional integration of people with disabilities is far too low to be

important.

Although benefiting from additional means of protection from the Romanian state, people with

disabilities are often discriminated by the members of the society who filter their medical conditions

through the prism of hostile stereotypes transmitted at national and international level even during the

Holocaust, German practices of pure breed conservation is a representative exa mple in this case.

Through this research we intend to highlight the lack of interest of the Romanian society regarding the

socio- professional integration of disadvantaged social categories as well as highlighting the benefits

1 The Romanian Government (2015). Narrative Strateg A barrier- free society for people with disabil ities in the period 2015-

2020, p. 17.