Law and Disability ‘Supported’ Employment in Australia: The Case for Ending Segregation, Discrimination, Exploitation and Violence against People with Disability at Work

This article argues for transition away from Australian Disability Enterprises (‘ADEs’) on the basis that they further segregation, discrimination, exploitation and violence against people with disability. ADEs (previously ‘sheltered workshops’) overwhelmingly impact people with intellectual and cognitive disability. In ADEs, employees with disability receive less than award wages. They work in segregated settings where they are separate from and in unequal relationships with employees without disability. While sometimes framed as an opportunity for skills development, ADE employees with disability are unlikely to move into open employment. Currently, a variety of laws across diverse domains, including disability services law, industrial relations law and guardianship law, provide legal basis for ADEs as necessary and beneficial to people with disability and organisations that operate ADEs receiving financial benefit from the unequal treatment of ADE employees with disability. Legal institutions with authority to help dismantle ADEs — the Commonwealth legislature, the Fair Work Commission (‘FWC’) and Federal Court — have further entrenched ADEs in law by dismissing claims that they are harmful to people with disability. Ultimately, the article provides a basis for the need for law reform to transition away from ADEs in a broader context of enhancing dignity, equality and self-determination of people with disability.