The entities that represent the most vulnerable workers will not participate, much to their regret, in the 1st Catalan Labor Congress, organized by the Department of Business and Work of the Generalitat and which will take place in Barcelona next week. This has been reported by the Table of Third Sector Entities and the Catalan Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (Cocarmi).
The Taula del Tercer Sector is an entity declared of public utility that represents all the social entities of Catalonia. One of its objectives is the fight against poverty and social inequalities. It brings together 35 federations and large organizations that in turn represent more than 3,000 altruistic entities, such as foundations, social cooperatives and social and labor insertion companies.
For its part, Cocarmi is an association that defends people with disabilities. It represents some 611,000 people and is the main interlocutor of this group before the public authorities. He has raised his voice on numerous occasions to defend that socio-labour integration is not a path. It is the way. Both this association and the Taula del Tercer Sector consider it incomprehensible that the Generalitat excludes them.
It is not a mere protocol act, say the sources consulted. Both organizations are “two of the main agents in the development of active employment policies in Catalonia” and had asked the Government to participate in the first edition of a congress that theoretically aims to study labor challenges. The inclusion of especially vulnerable people should be one of those challenges.
And why is inclusion an urgent challenge? Montse Cardona, from the Tresc Foundation, one of the many non-profit organizations that defends the social and labor inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and mental disorders, explained it very well on a recent occasion: “A bridge is measured by its weakest pillar ; if that pillar is abandoned, everything collapses. We are that pillar.”
The entities absent from the meeting organized by the Generalitat are leaders in advising and accompanying people accustomed to finding closed doors. They offer them, among other things, guidance and training to open those doors a little. Only in this way, they explain, is the risk of social exclusion eradicated. At present, the special job and insertion centers maintain 15,000 jobs.
But these exits are not the only ones that should open the doors of the bus. Entities like Aura Fundació work so that disability is not a ravine to work in ordinary companies. It is not a chimera: thanks to your support, he has found work for more than 400 people. The pioneer was Raúl, with Down syndrome, the first Aura beneficiary to join the staff of an ordinary company. It was in 1990.
All this makes it even more incomprehensible if the omission of the Department of Business and Work of the Generalitat, which has a general direction dedicated to “the social and solidarity economy, the third sector and cooperatives”. Through these mechanisms, the Generalitat must “plan, direct and execute policies related to the social and solidarity economy”, insist the Table of the Third Sector and Cocarmi.
The motto of the congress will be Work in a new economy for life. Social entities also defend an economy for life, but they will not be able to participate in the congress, despite their repeated requests in this regard, even in writing. They sent a letter to those responsible for the department “to be able to participate in the spaces for reflection and work on labor insertion policies.” It was all for nothing.
The Generalitat’s response was again negative. “It’s like inaugurating a congress on fire prevention without inviting firefighters,” says an activist from the sector who requested anonymity. La Taula del Tercer Sector and Cocarmi wonder how a congress can be planned “so that it is a meeting point for social agents, academic, political and economic referents if the third social sector is not included”.
