The Coalition of Unemployed Graduates with Disabilities has threatened to resume picketing after September 15 if the government fails to present a concrete plan to employ qualified persons with disabilities.
The coalition says an earlier ultimatum issued to the government has expired without a satisfactory roadmap to address the unemployment challenges confronting tertiary-educated persons with disabilities.
In a petition to Parliament’s Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the coalition said it was not seeking charity but demanding what it described as its fundamental right to work.
The group is calling for the immediate recruitment of about 400 unemployed tertiary-educated persons with disabilities into the public sector.
It is also demanding the enforcement of employment quotas and incentives for private employers who recruit persons with disabilities.
Additionally, the coalition wants a policy directive reserving a specific percentage of recruitment opportunities in Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies as well as state-owned enterprises for qualified persons with disabilities.
The coalition said it had previously engaged the Ministers for Gender, Children and Social Protection and Employment and Labour Relations, but those engagements had failed to produce what it considers a substantive solution.
It further cited a recent recruitment exercise by the Ghana Education Service as evidence of what it described as systemic exclusion.
According to the coalition, it submitted a list of 200 qualified potential teachers in collaboration with the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations during the recruitment of 7,000 teachers, but none of its nominees was selected.
The group said it had also staged demonstrations and picketing, including a recent protest at Jubilee House, where it claimed government officials assured protesters that some of its members would be absorbed into the public sector.
The protesters subsequently suspended the action after being assured that their leadership would meet President John Mahama to seek a solution.
However, the coalition said subsequent attempts to reach the presidential staffer who received its petition had gone unanswered.
It has therefore warned that it could resume its protest after September 15 if its demands are not addressed.
“If this approach does not yield any positive result, there will be another crazy picketing after the 15th of this month which will never be suspended until our demands are met,” the petition stated.
The coalition cited Article 29 of the 1992 Constitution, the Persons with Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715), and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as the legal basis for its demands.
It maintained that disability should not be treated as an inability, arguing that persons with disabilities have skills and perspectives that can contribute meaningfully to Ghana’s workforce.
“Our disability is not an inability; it is a unique perspective that can enrich our national workforce,” the group said.
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