Hattab Al-Anzi said the ministry would consider the employment of a single handicapped equivalent to the appointment of four able-bodied citizens. “This is an incentive to the employers,” he explained.
A number of disabled citizens complained that they could not find jobs to suit their physical and mental condition and said many private companies refused to accept them in the technical, vocational or industrial cadres.
They said although the ministry promised incentives to private companies, they were still not able to find jobs.
They also said there were no special facilities that would enable them to enter or leave these companies. “The lack of easy access to the companies and the low salaries they pay are not helping us to look for jobs in the private sector,” one of them said.
Fahd Al-Amri, who has a hearing problem, said he was working with a communications company, but when his condition worsened, the company sacked him. “Although the Labor Ministry has asked private companies to employ the handicapped in jobs that would suit their disabilities, the company was not willing to heed these instructions,” he said.
Al-Amri said he was constantly contacting the labor office in Riyadh to solve his problem, but there were no signs of an imminent solution.
Muhammad Al-Subhi, a crippled citizen, said he had so far not been able to find any job, despite the fact that he had contacted a number of private companies. He said he explained his problem on the Internet, but nobody noticed.
“I still have great hopes in the ministry to find jobs for us,” he said.
Meanwhile, a study by Naif Zarie, head of special education department at King Abdulaziz University, found out that the handicapped registered less absence from work than other people by at least 12 percent. They were also about 1 percent more productive, he said.
Zarie called for the employment of disabled people in jobs that would not entail heavy duty or constant movements, such as office work, making carpets, pottery, and leather works.
