The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

EMPLOYERS would face a significantly tougher mandate to hire people with disabilities under proposed changes to the country's disability law, with the threshold lowered to 50 workers and the required share effectively doubled from one percent to two percent.

The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities) (Amendment) Bill, 2026 would require employers to hire at least one qualified person with a disability for every 50 employees. The existing Act applies only to employers with more than 100 workers and requires at least one percent of their workforce to be qualified people with disabilities.

It remains unclear, however, whether the new provisions will be enforced, given the longstanding failure by authorities to enforce key requirements of the substantive law since it was passed in 2014.

The consultation draft, released by the Ministry of Health and Wellness this month, would also create a specific offence of abusing a person with a disability, impose new accessibility requirements on public buildings, strengthen employment protection for workers who become disabled and sharply increase several penalties under the Act.

Public consultation on the amendments ended last Thursday.

The Bill represents a substantial proposed overhaul of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities) Act, which has been in place since 2014 and already prohibits employment discrimination and provides rights covering accessibility, health care, housing, transportation, education and other areas.

Under the existing employment provision, only employers with more than 100 employees are required to ensure that at least one percent of their workforce comprises qualified people with disabilities.

The Commission can issue an exemption where employable people with disabilities are unavailable. The amendment would replace that requirement with one qualified person with a disability for every 50 employees.

It would also protect people who acquire disabilities after being hired. If such an employee could no longer perform the job for which he or she was employed, the employer would have to reassign the person to another job in accordance with relevant laws.

The Department of Labour would work with the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities to maintain records of people with disabilities, their skills and training to assist with job placement.

The Bill would also make abuse of a person with a disability a specific offence.

Abuse would cover acts or omissions causing, or likely to cause, physical, sexual, psychological, emotional or financial harm, suffering or distress and would include exploitation, neglect and abandonment.

Psychological abuse would include repeated insults, ridicule or name-calling, repeated threats to cause emotional pain, repeated invasions of privacy, liberty, integrity or security and exposure to circumstances that could cause physical or mental harm.

Economic abuse would include unreasonably depriving a person with a disability of financial or economic resources needed for proper care and wellbeing.

The legislation would also put accessibility requirements directly into the approval process for new public buildings.

No public building plan could be approved unless it complied with accessibility standards approved by the Commission.

The draft also says the Ministry of Works could not issue an occupancy certificate without proof of compliance, although that provision is expressly marked as requiring a policy decision.

The existing Act already requires proprietors of buildings accessible to the public to adapt them for people with disabilities and provide designated parking.

The amendment would also impose a $250 fine on anyone convicted of parking in a space designated for people with disabilities.

Service animals are another area in which the Bill would strengthen existing provisions.

The current Act requires the responsible minister to facilitate their use in public places, buildings and services and provides for people who need assistance to be accompanied by them without an additional charge.

The amendment would expressly require people with disabilities who use service animals to be permitted to bring them into public places and buildings, public services and facilities and rented or leased residential properties. Entities with "no pets" policies would have to modify those policies to accommodate service animals.

The Bill would define a service animal as an animal trained to perform work or tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability.

It would also expand tax concessions by adding Value Added Tax to existing provisions dealing with exemptions and expanding provisions covering vehicles to include vehicle parts. However, the draft says the VAT proposals require a policy decision, Ministry of Finance approval and corresponding amendments to the Value Added Tax Act.

Telecommunications providers would, as far as possible, have to ensure their devices, units and services are available, accessible and affordable to people with disabilities.

Penalties would also rise substantially.

Discrimination in insurance would carry a maximum $10,000 fine, up to 12 months in prison, or both, while the Act's general penalty would rise from a maximum $5,000 fine and three months' imprisonment to $10,000 and 12 months. The existing general penalty is $5,000 or up to three months in prison, or both.

Parents, guardians and next of kin would also be prohibited from concealing, prohibiting, preventing or denying a person with a disability access to protections, opportunities and services under the Act.

A conviction could result in a fine of up to $10,000, imprisonment for up to 12 months, or both.

The Bill's Objects and Reasons says the amendments are intended to “strengthen and modernise the legal framework for the protection, inclusion, and equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities.”