State law threatens work options for people with disabilities - Park Rapids Enterprise
Specialized work centers around Minnesota, such as the Hubbard County Developmental Achievement Center (DAC), are facing closure or reduced services for people with disabilities.
State legislation threatens to eliminate supported employment programs for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).
On April 22, State Sen. Paul Utke (R-Park Rapids) was recognized for his ongoing efforts to amend the bill during this session.
During the July 2021 special session, language was slipped into the Minnesota Health and Human Services omnibus bill creating a “task force to eliminate subminimum wage law.”
Many disability service providers hold special certificates from the U.S. Department of Labor that exempt them from the federal minimum wage and allow them to pay workers with disabilities based on productivity, instead of a fixed hourly rate.
Specifically known as Section 14c of the Fair Labor Standards Act, it is a highly regulated, licensed program, explains Dawn Kovacovich.
She is a retired special education teacher, a member of the DAC board of directors and a board member of the Federal Coalition for the Preservation of Employment Choice.
Her 30-year-old daughter, Laura, has multiple disabilities, including autism.
Dawn recently co-founded A-Team Minnesota in response to the new Minnesota task force. The A-Team Minnesota is part of a nationwide, nonprofit, grassroots network that advocates for people with disabilities.
Dawn said there are many people, like her daughter, who can’t work in a competitive, integrated work setting due to behavioral, medical, safety or other issues related to their disabilities.
She and others are seeking amendments so the task force focuses on increasing employment opportunities for all people with disabilities, rather than eliminating those choices.
The amendment will also add members to the task force who represent the I/DD population. Advocacy groups, such as A-Team Minnesota, and parent/guardians are currently excluded from participating on the task force.
“I love my jobs!” says Laura Kovacovich.
She has worked at the DAC since 2012. Some of her duties are filing office papers, cutting price tags for the thrift store or ripping jeans into long strips that will be woven into rugs.
Her main job at the thrift store is to price and shelf items.
At Friday’s presentation, Laura told the crowd, “I have a right to choose where I work.”
She gave Sen. Utke a framed, colored drawing of her weaving rugs at the DAC and thanked him “for protecting my choice to work.”
If places like the DAC are shut down, she worries that “a lot of supervisors won’t understand my disabilities. They won’t know what to do when I become upset.”
“Staying at home is not my choice,” she added.
Minnesota currently employs about 7,000 people – like Laura – under the 14c program.
On April 22, A-Team Minnesota recognized State Sen. Paul Utke (R-Park Rapids) for his efforts to amend the 2021 legislation.
Jim Clapper, vice president of the A-Team, said seven states have already eliminated utilization of 14c. As a result, more people are unable to find competitive work, he said.
Dawn praised Utke for being a strong supporter of the DAC program.
“Caring and supporting people with disabilities should be a nonpartisan issue. We should be a united front on this,” she added.
Utke said it’s hard to understand why the task force wants to “eliminate this section of the workforce. It’s a small number. … It’s an important number. And we’re not going to let that go away.”
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“For us, we’re not going to close,” said DAC Executive Director Laura Johnson. “We have an array of services that not every agency has. In fact, COVID didn’t hit us as hard as other agencies because of our stores. We had that additional revenue.”
The Minnesota Department of Human Services doesn’t consider Bearly Used Thrift Store, Salvage Depot or Tin Ceiling “community employment” simply because the businesses are owned by the DAC.
Johnson noted the DAC and its board chose not to apply for a “transformation grant” of $250,000 that would have required them to end their 14c license by the end of 2024.
“This agency has really been work-focused for almost 50 years,” she said. “Everything we do is based on choice.”
DAC participants can work at the DAC workshop where items that are made are sold in the stores. They can work at one of the three shops or in community jobs.
Alternatively, they can pursue other activities, like theater, crafts, exercise and more.
“There’s this myth that these people are forced to work in an exploitative situation,” Dawn said. “I will say this firmly again and again, this is about the choice to work.”
If commensurate, ability-based wages are discarded, Dawn said she’s frustrated about the domino effect. “For a lot of places, not necessarily here, if you remove the wage accommodations, it becomes economically infeasible for them to stay open.”
It also removes the choice to work for people like her daughter.
source: https://www.parkrapidsenterprise.com/news/local/state-law-threatens-work-options-for-people-with-disabilities
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