The project, organised by the Poslovni Dnevnik business daily in cooperation with employers, is offering disabled pupils an opportunity to conduct their practical work with the possibility of being employed, the deputy editor of this business magazine, Vladimir Nisevic said, adding that they hoped that more employers would join the project.
According to the new law on professional rehabilitation, companies that have more than 20 employees are obliged to employ a certain number of disabled people or offer practical work or they will be charged a penalty of HRK 900 for each person they didn't employ into a special fund.
The prescribed quota of disabled employees cannot be less than two percent or more than six percent of the total number employed by an employer.
Underscoring that any effort to employ the disabled was welcome, Assistant Labour and Pension System Minister Tatjana Dalic said that employers who could not employ a disabled person due to the nature of work conducted have an entire series of other measures at their disposal.
Estimates indicated that there are around 500,000 disabled persons in Croatia, half of whom capable of working. There are currently 6,000 disabled persons registered as unemployed and on average 1,800 find jobs each year.
The new law had already shown results and in the first three months of it being applied, 400 disabled persons have found jobs, Dalic said.
There are 8,300 employers in Croatia obliged to employ people with disabilities through the system of quotas, the director of the professional rehabilitation institute Lidija Hrastic Novak explained.