At the sitting held on 8 April, the Poverty Reduction Committee considered the Bill on Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons. The sitting was chaired by Snezana Stojanovic-Plavsic, Committee Chairperson.

The representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development stressed that the goal of the new law is to increase the employment of disabled persons, among other, by introducing quotas for employers according to which they shall be obligated to employ a certain number of such persons. They stated that there are about 700 000 disabled persons in Serbia, 13% of which are employed, and according to estimate 70% are poor.

The representative of the Creative Educational Centre for Mentally Underdeveloped Persons stressed that the Bill mainly pertains to physically not mentally disabled persons. She proposed that a provision be included into the Bill according to which mentally underdeveloped persons can be employed on the open market, not merely within centres, as was proposed.

Accepting the Bill, the Committee members deemed that the essence of the legislation is to actively include disabled persons into society so as to make them visible, and that they be provided vocational rehabilitation and socialisation. It is particularly important that the Bill also envisages additional training for jobs these persons are able do, and that they are included into the job market like all other persons.

In the discussion, it was pointed out that the adoption of the Bill on Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons would help decrease the poverty of a large number of these people who are among the poorest citizens of Serbia. The Committee members accepted the proposal to include the abovementioned provision on the employment of special needs persons into the Bill.