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23 Indus. L.J. 254 (1994)
Research and Reports

handle is hein.journals/indlj23 and id is 268 raw text is: RESEARCH AND REPORTS Disability and Employment: International Perspectives Neil Lunt and Patricia Thornton, Employment Policies for Disabled People: A Review of Legislation and Services in Fifteen Countries London: Employment Department, Research Series No. 16.1993. 206 pp. Adam Pozner and Judith Hammond, An Evaluation of Supported Employment Initiatives for Disabled People London: Employment Department, Research Series No.17. 1993. During the course of 1994, the House of Commons Employment Committee's inquiry into the disabled workers' quota scheme, and the unsuccessful attempts to introduce private members' legislation outlawing disability discrimination, have once again focused attention upon the role of law and legislation in advancing the employment expectations of disabled persons. These two contributions to the Employment Department's research series, published in October 1993, are a timely contribution to the debate. In recent years a number of supranational organizations have produced surveys of disabled employment legislation. These have been typically compendia of reports from national rapporteurs (usually civil servants) and consisted of a litany of legislative provisions with little or no attempt at critical analysis or further practical assessment. The same cannot be said of the excellent review of legislation and services in fifteen countries undertaken by Neil Lunt and Patricia Thornton of the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York. Their survey encompasses country reports for ten European nations plus Australia and Canada, supplemented by three further in-depth studies of the position in France, Germany and the United States. Each report or study is set in the appropriate policy and institutional context, and examines definitions of disability, disability statistics, employment support services, open employment legislation, measures of financial intervention, sheltered employment, alternative forms of disabled employ- ment, and the position of particular sub-groups of disabled persons. Of particular interest to employment lawyers is Lunt and Thornton's account of the use of legislation as a means of labour market intervention to assist the employment prospects of persons with disabilities. They distinguish two broad types of approach to such intervention. First, there is that group of countries, typified by the United States, Canada and Australia, which locates disabled employment rights within over-arching anti- discrimination legislation. It has been the paradigms presented by these nations which have informed disability rights advocates in Britain and, of course, the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 has been especially influential upon the sponsors of the Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill which so singularly failed to make progress in the House of Commons. Second, the European nations constitute a further group of countries: a group whose disability policies tend to be departmentalized and fragmented, reflecting different concerns with social security, social welfare and the labour market. These countries are also distinguishable for their central reliance upon quota legislation, reserved occupations and voluntary methods rather than adherence to any equal treatment or equal opportunities principle. The dichotomy between anti-discrimination norms and compulsory quotas is an 254 Industrial Law Journal. Vol. 23. No. 3. September 1994 @ Industrial Law Society

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