Half of Dutch employers won't hire people with disabilities, health problems: report

People with disabilities or health problems in the Netherlands have a hard time finding work. Half of organizations do not want to hire people with disabilities or other health problems, according to a study among 3 thousand employers by social and cultural planning office SCP, BNR reports.

Half of the organizations indicated that they don't want to hire additional people with health restrictions. Two thirds said that they feel responsible for hiring people with disabilities or health problems, but only 11 percent actually intend to do so.

The organizations gave several reasons for not hiring people with health problems. "For example they say there are no suitable positions for those people or they do not need any new people at all", Patrica van Echtelt of the SCP said to the broadcaster. "It also seems that they think they don't have enough capacity for the additional support for that group."

According to the SCP, one possible problem here is that many employers are not familiar with regulations or schemes for people with restrictions, such as a wage subsidy or a no-risk regulation in which they do not have to pay medical expenses if the employee is ill. "It may be that if these schemes are more known, employers will also make more use of them", Van Echtelt said.

The report also shows that more and more employers want to keep employees after the age of 60, but at the same time mitigating measures for the elderly are used less and less often.