New amended regulations concerning employment of persons with disabilities come into force on 1st July this year. According to these regulations, the reliefs for employees which allow them to lower dues for PFRON will be reduced (from 80 to 50 per cent). Entrepreneurs will deduct 50 per cent from their invoice for PFRON from 1st July this year – announces Jan Zając, CEO of Polska Organizacja Pracodawców Osób Niepełnosprawnych (POPON), during the talk with the information agency Newseria Biznes. Undoubtedly, it is not beneficial for employees. In our opinion, it can contribute to reducing attractiveness concerning employment of persons with disabilities by companies which guarantee such reliefs. In result, it can also contribute to reducing attractiveness of services and products offered by such enterprises.
Dues for PFRON are made by enterprises which do not hire a number of people with disabilities specified in the act. However, these companies have a chance for reducing a contribution paid for the Fund by purchasing of services and products in organizations which meet the statutory requirement of hiring the proper number of employees with the official statement assessing disability. On the one hand, employers who benefit from reliefs will have lower profits. On the other hand, there can be an increase in proceeds for PFRON, which suffers from lack of incomes because payments are lower and lower and thus its financial situation is threatened – explains Jan Zając.
New regulations, which are coming into force on 1st July, result from the amendment of the Act on Vocational and Social Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities from September 2015. Their aim is to tighten up the system of benefitting from reliefs and to eliminate misuses. Nowadays, it is difficult to predict how the market will react on this amendment – says Jan Zając. It seems that this relief will be attractive enough for enterprises to still benefit from it. Companies which hire persons with disabilities and guarantee such reliefs should still operate. I believe that it is an attractive form of aid, after all. However, it is difficult to speculate now how it will function in the future. We should find out in September.