주제어 : 장애인, 적극적 조치, 적절한 편의제공, 근로권

<Abstract>

 The right to Decent Work of Persons

with Disabilities

― Based on the discussion of ILO and UN ―

Hue, Ik-Soo

Lecturer, Inha Univ.

The issue of employment, the so called ‘the equal rights to employment’ is important to people with disabilities; employment promotes economic independence, broadens contact with society, and gives sense of self and recognition in society. Employment can help prevent disabled people from being excluded from acquiring equality and full participation in and integrating into society. Disabled people in work force have been viewed as welfare recipients. Due to institutional constrains, societal exclusion, and people's prejudiced attitudes, they have not been able to acquire their basic human rights, including equal rights to employment.

Hence in this paper, I am going to study what disabled people's right to employment is by looking at the discussion of ILO and UN, two organizations that have been working on this issue for long. Based on the ILO and UN standards, I will clarify the concept of disabled people's employment right and briefly discuss its effect on Korea's current disability laws. Beginning with the protection of injured employees, the international organizations, led by ILO and UN, are currently developing and trying to implement the protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of people with disabilities. It is difficult to define employment rights of disabled people. However, it can be defined as the work rights or the labor rights on the common municipal law grounds, the rights to receive ‘affirmative action’ from the government to easily enter the open labor market, the rights to receive ‘reasonable accommodation’ from the government or the employer to be able to work at an equal environment as non-disabled people, and further right to not be discriminated against on the basis of disability in all employment process.

As the expression of ‘from welfare to human rights’, the employment rights of people with disabilities should be considered as their basic human rights. Korea's laws and policies regarding disabled people, however, are still mentioned to the security or the welfare point of view. Further, there is no law in Korea that could sufficiently protect the rights of disabled people being discriminated against based on their disabilities in the hiring and employment process.

The international organizations, led by ILO, are repeatedly recognizing the importance of collaborating with representative organizations of people with disabilities in the process of developing and implementing the laws and policies. It is necessary to actively discuss and cooperate with such organizations of disabled people and directly apply their opinion in the policy-making process. Unless these are implemented, the equal employment rights, and even the basic human rights of people with disabilities would not be established properly.

Key words : persons with disabilities, affirmative action, reasonable accommodation, right to decent work