CLA encourages employers to hire disabled workers

Yesterday marked the prelude to a series of award ceremonies across the country designed to encourage companies to hire mentally and physically disabled people.

Organized by the Bureau of Employment and Vocational Affairs under the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), the slogan for the event was, "A healthy Taiwan; happy laborers."

CLA Chairman Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) opened the ceremony by printing the logo for the project -- a handshake -- on a T-shirt.

The host of the event, Huang Ya-ling (黃雅玲) said that the logo reminded people that everyone had a right to work.

Huang said that there were over 100 winners of the award in five categories.

"Today's gathering is very touching. It shows that our society is willing to give, and people are willing to take care of each other," Lee said.

Lee said that laws to protect the mentally and physically handicapped state that for companies with more than 50 employees, 1 percent of the workforce should be made up of mentally or physically handicapped people.

According to Lee, the number of physically and mentally disabled people employed in the country has risen from 7,117 in 1991 to 44,958 in July of this year, an increase he called "considerable."