a boon for the employment of people with disabilities?

On the occasion of the European week for the employment of people with disabilities, franceinfo: sport questioned several stakeholders to find out if the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris next summer could create a dynamic for the employment of people in a situation of disability.

“A golden opportunity.” On the occasion of a major recruitment day organized by Paris 2024, Friday November 17, Chantal Lasnier welcomes the holding of the first Summer Paralympic Games in France, an event which she believes will make it easier for people with disabilities to access employment. The deputy director of talent and diversity within the Organizing Committee (Cojop) wishes “bring down self-censorship” disabled workers and notes that “many able-bodied employees realize that here, people who have a disability, visible or not, are important, do a real job with responsibilities”.

This is the case of Halima Lazreg, project manager for spectator services for Paris 2024. “My recruitment took place in an ordinary process, with two interviews. It was important for me. There were around fifteen of us that day, three people were recruited”remembers the one who has been in a wheelchair since her childhood.

“A friend told me that the Committee was looking for people and that I had to apply. I told her that I knew nothing about sport, but she reassured me by explaining to me that there was no was not necessarily related!

Halima Lazreg, project manager for spectator services for Paris 2024

at franceinfo: sport

At the Organizing Committee, the smiling Halima takes care of the training and planning center for all the volunteers. An important mission for this holder of a third cycle in human sciences, because the distribution of numbers and volumes during the Games will be crucial.

“The objective is to put oneself in the shoes of all these volunteersshe explains. They are of a different age, come from different countries, speak different languages… We will find relatively simple training so that everyone understands it, without it being simplistic.”she explains, happy to have landed this mission.

The professional journey has not been a long, quiet river for Halima. “It has always been complicated to find work. There are stereotypes that die hard, representations according to which we are doing someone a favor by giving them a job, which people with disabilities cannot claim. only low-skilled jobs due to a lower level of training… Even when there is no mismatch with the labor market, it often doesn’t work.”, she regrets. Today, their senior profile (over 50 years old) is another limiting factor, but it corresponds to a certain reality: job seekers with disabilities are older than the average (50% are 50 years old and more, compared to 26% for the entire population).

Recruitment forums organized on the sidelines of para-sport competitions

To sustain the jobs created thanks to the Games, associations such as Agefiph (National Association for the Management of the Fund for the Professional Integration of Disabled People) artworknt in consort with the Organizing Committee. Responsible for studies and development, Julien Viaud is delighted that Paris 2024 “integrates people who are sometimes far from employment”, and ensures that the association “already working with [ses] partner companies to support these people after the Games, because in a year, it will be over.”

In recent months, she has notably encouraged and participated in recruitment forums. The first took place in February 2022 during the European Wheelchair Rugby Cup. “Around fifty companies were present, including large groups”, specifies Philippe Ephritikhine, responsible for sports partnerships. Of the 500 people present at the event, 50 were recruited. There were then 239 hired during the World Para Athletics Championships last summer in Charléty and around fifty at the end of October during the International Wheelchair Rugby Cup.

Major difficulties in keeping people with disabilities in employment

If the figures show a drop in the unemployment rate of people recognized as disabled (12% in 2022 compared to 17.3% in 2015), it is not only in access to employment that things are difficult . On the occasion of the European Week for the Employment of People with Disabilities (SEEPH), APF France Handicap published an overview of the continued employment of workers with disabilities. The association alerts the public authorities to a “growing professional disintegration”.

“It has always been a sea serpent, and I don’t know if organizing the Games at home will have an effect on this structural problem in the organization of work”, asks Pascale Ribes, president of APF France Handicap. Because behind the subject of disability, it is above all a much more universal and less stigmatizing problem: that of health at work.

According to the report of the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS “Disabilities and employment”, 2020), one to two million employees are exposed to the risk of losing their job in the short or medium term, i.e. 5 to 10% of them. them, due to their state of health or a disability.

“Instead of arranging workstations, we direct people towards incapacity or notices of restriction of aptitude. The impact of fatigue, the need for care… All this is not really studied Many have choppy or interrupted career paths, are not sufficiently trained and therefore work in low-skilling and often difficult jobs, which generate problems. It is a vicious circle, these people find themselves unfit while could have adapted the position.”

Towards a post-Games effect like in London in 2012?

All stakeholders agree that the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris in a few months, thought of as a real springboard into society for people with disabilities, will only be so on the condition that they be inclusive “during and after the event”. Accessibility – a major issue in welcoming thousands of spectators from all over the world – must be part of a broader legacy. As for employment stricto sensu, for Pascale Ribes, “it is still too early to assess any effect of the Games. Nevertheless, we have the feeling that there are a certain number of initiatives emerging. We would like this to become more widespread, particularly in the employment obligation [qui impose à toute entreprise de 20 salariés et plus d’employer au moins 6% de personnes en situation de handicap] so that the movement is more structuring.”

Others, like Philippe Ephritikhine, want to build on the example of London in 2012. “The Games were a huge step forward in terms of visibility of disability. This lever of parasport is very important in changing the outlook, including in companies.” In August 2022, the president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Andrew Parsons, explained to franceinfo: sport that more than a million additional hires of people with disabilities had taken place after the Paralympic Games were held in the United Kingdom. United.