The labor inclusion of people with disabilities in the Chilean local context: gaps between what is declared and practice

Abstract

Since the promulgation of Law 21.015, in the Chilean labor context, the most used mechanism to promote the labor inclusion of people with disabilities (PwD) is the hiring quota system in the productive sector. However, this is insufficient to transform their situation of precariousness and exclusion. Under an ethnographic study, we set out to explore what inclusion practices emerge in the daily deployment of a quota law in a supermarket chain in the local Chilean context. We observe that there are deep gaps between what is declared in the regulations, in management discourses and in a corporate diversity policy, and the local practices deployed in work spaces. While is observed a cosmetic inclusion translated into simple numerical hiring quotas, emerge local, daily and intuitive actions by co-workers , which give meaning and support to the processes of labor inclusion. This is expressed in practices of recognition of the other in their diversity, which transcend what is prescribed in the law and managerial discourses. We maintain that, to move towards greater democratization of work spaces, it is urgent to rethink the current regulations. We propose that, in order to reduce the gaps between what is declared and practice, the actions that emerge intuitively “from below” must be recognized and transferred in work spaces, as they are essential for PwD to become whole participants in social interaction.