The Federal Minister responsible for the Civil Service, the Flemish Green Petra De Sutter (Groen), has decided that some of the vacancies for federal public service jobs will be set aside for people that are living with a disability. Nevertheless, Ms De Sutter is keen to stress that all applicants will still need to prove that they “are the best candidate for the job”.
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Public sector jobs to be reserved for people with a disability
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The Federal Government aims to have 3% of administrative positions within the federal public services taken up by people that are living with a disability. Currently, this is just 1.09%.
In the 7-year-period prior to 2022 the percentage of federal public service employees that have a disability was fell. Last year the percentage rose from 1.06% to 1.09%. Ms De Sutter says that it is time to take positive action to ensure that people that are living with a disability are better represented within the federal public services.
Under measures introduced recently federal public service departments are able to reserve some of their vacancies for people with a disability. The measure will remain in force until 3% of all federal public service employees are people that are living with some form of disability.
Ms De Sutter told VRT News that “We are doing this for two reasons. First of all people that have a disability find it more difficult to access the labour market and there is currently a shortage of labour. All talent is welcome”.
The application procedure will be adapted to ensure that people living with a disability are given a fair chance.
“The best person for the job”
Ms De Sutter is keen to stress that applicants will still need to pass the necessary tests to enable them to be offered a public sector job.
“Living with a handicap isn’t enough and they must prove that they are the best candidate for the job”. She adds the measure is not positive discrimination, but either “An example of positive action that is designed to alleviate inequality. Figures show that people living with a disability are structurally under-represented on the work floor”.
"It will be up to individual departments to decided which vacancies they set aside for people living with a disability”, Mr De Sutter told VRT News.