Press Release IG Metall: Tear down barriers to jobs!

Frankfurt am Main – One in ten people in Germany has a severe disability. Yet the proportion of employees with severe disabilities in the workforce is only 4.5 percent. On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3), the IG Metall union is calling for an end to the exclusion of people with disabilities. To achieve this, every company must become barrier-free.

IG Metall Social Affairs Director Hans-Jürgen Urban: “Instead of exclusion and labor shortages, we need to build bridges to greater employment.” According to figures from the Federal Employment Agency, 61 percent of companies either do not meet their legal obligation to employ people with severe disabilities at all or meet it only to a very limited extent.

IG Metall criticizes the fact that fines for companies without employees with disabilities were abolished in 2023. According to the union, offices and factory floors should be built or redesigned to be barrier-free from the outset.

Urban: “Social inequality exacerbates the shortage of skilled workers. By not employing people with disabilities, companies are not only excluding them—they are ultimately limiting themselves. People with severe disabilities are generally at least as qualified as other employees.” Most disabilities are acquired by people during the course of their working lives. Urban: “People with disabilities finally need guaranteed opportunities.” Referring to various unfinished legislative proposals aimed at improving the situation of employees with disabilities and those who are ill, Urban said: “Promises, delays, and missed opportunities must be a thing of the past. Participation in working life is a human right. Participation must no longer be merely a theoretical possibility.”