The Varaždin Secondary Vocational School, the Golden Hands Health Care Institution from Pula, and the Zagreb factory Zvijezda are the winners of the ‘Employer of the Year for Persons with Disabilities’ award in a selection organized by the Fund for Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities, the MojPosao portal, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Croatia.
The awards were presented to the representatives of the winners at today’s ceremony. The Varaždin Secondary Vocational School was awarded in the category of public institutions and companies for its production workshop project, which employs about twenty persons with disabilities who provide sewing services, manufacture school furniture, and perform other suitable jobs. In the category of large companies, the Zvijezda factory received the award for employing 23 persons with disabilities, of whom 17 are in permanent employment and work in the packaging of margarine and mayonnaise.
The Golden Hands Health Care Institution from Pula is the winner in the category of small and medium-sized enterprises. Of the total of 43 employees in this institution, two are visually impaired. According to Ante Vučić, director of the Fund for Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities, by the end of November, 391 employers had utilized incentives for the employment of 2,476 persons with disabilities. Zorislav Boguš, president of the Association of Disability Unions, warns that a significant portion of the incentives is taken by banks and insurance companies, which, as he assessed, could do so without incentives and thus free up funds for other employers.
