HOME FOR WORK
By PROFESSOR HERMANN LEVY
AFUNDAMENTAL pre-occupation of the returning Serviceman is to settle down in a suitable job. In most cases, we may assume, the ex-Serviceman is fortunate enough to find his old job waiting for him. But even then the problem of occupational re- settlement may not be completely solved. Many Servicemen have done work in the forces which, as a matter of fact, or in their belief, would entitle them to better jobs than their old one ; others may find the change from outdoor to indoor life unpleasant ; again, others may find that their fellow-workers have in the six years of war become familiar with new techniques which it may take some time to catch up. A leading authority on the problem of re- settlement, Lt.-Col. R. A. C. Radcliffe, speaks of " the new vision which Servicemen bring with them." This vision sometimes entails problems which may lead to difficulties even where the returning men find their old jobs still available. Yet it may be assumed that they are in the main transitory, and that after some time the attitude of the Serviceman returning to civilian occupation will adjust itself.
A far more complex situation arises when the ex-Serviceman leaves the Forces in a disabled condition. It is quite natural that a great many partially disabled men, after being medically rehabilitated, seek the solution of the problem in their own way, and through their own initiative. The result, as far as it is known, is disastrous. In 194t a sample investigation made by the Department of Health for Scotland showed that Servicemen on their return to civil life after having been invalided out of the Forces, " left to them- selves . . . fared badly—socially, medically and in relation to work." It is satisfactory to know that measures have been adopted on a large scale to protect partially disabled workers from such misfortunes. So many new features have of late developed in this great social service, and on such a worldwide scale, that the International Labour Office has now published a volume on the training and employment of the disabled, including the war-disabled, describing and analysing the different methods employed for this purpose in various important industrial countries.*
It is characteristic that a range of entirely novel functions, sometimes even novel in their nomenclature, has been evolved in connection with the re-employment of partially disabled workers. They comprise such features as vocational rehabilitation, identification and registration of disabled persons, vocational guidance, training and retraining, reservation of a qudta of disabled persons, sheltered employment for the severely disabled, selection arrange- ments, and close comparison of the " job performance " of disabled persons with that of able-bodied workers. An almost unlimited field of new research lies before us. It has become more and more obvious that it does not suffice to direct an impaired worker to just "a " job, but that it must definitely be " the right job." job analysis has suddenly been discovered to be an essential requirement. " Selec- tive placement of the disabled," writes the International Labour Office, that is, " a careful selection of employment according to the capacities of the worker and the requirements of the job, is one of the most significant developments in national policies concerning the training and employment of disabled persons." But how can we get job analysis in such a short time? In many countries so-called " incapacity schedules " have been introduced not comparing the dis- abled worker, as it crudely proposed in the present National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Bill with a normal person of the same age and sex, but taking account of his specific occupational capacities and his previous occupation. A number of countries, especially
'I' The Training and Employment of Disabled Persons, Montreal, 1945. International Labour Office. Available through P. S. King and Staples, London.
some European countries, the United States and Canada, had intro- duced long before this war rehabilitation services of various types, and through this had gained experience in the placement of disabled persons.
In some countries statutory associations consisting of em- ployers, or of employers and employees, had been formed to dis- charge, or at least to assist in discharging, the task of rehabilitation and re-employment. All this necessitated some sort of job analysis and " selective placement " long before the need for them was known in Britain, where neither the Workmen's Compensation nor the National Health Insurance Acts contained any provisions dealing with rehabilitation and placement. Now, when medical science and surgery have revealed the enormous potentialities of rehabilitation, and when in Britain in particular medical authorities, experts on the subject—as Sir Reginald Watson-Jones, Mr. Hugh E. Griffiths, or Sir Morton Smart—have won a worldwide reputation, the problem of directing rehabilitation to its final goal of placing the handicapped person into the right job is facing practical difficulties in the purely economic and social field. Two main difficulties seem to emerge from experience so far available.
One relates to the register of disabled persons. Strictly speaking, the only way in which complete data on disabled persons can be established is by compulsory registration ; in building up the register it would be possible to classify the persons concerned ac- cording to their physical and occupational abilities and limitations, and the type of vocational guidance that they would need to find, and, no less important, to retain suitable employment. In Canada registration has been on a compulsory basis under the National Selective Service Regulations, which have affected all workers with certain exceptions. Workers are classified on the basis of their disabilities. In Britain such compulsion has been rejected mainly on the ground that a great number of the disabled persons might resent classification as " cripples." Another difficulty affects the Dis- ablement Rehabilitation Officers, who visit the patient in hospital, in order to discuss his occupational prospects ; excellent as are the intentions of the men performing this difficult work, they need the assistance, as P. E. P. wisely suggests, of ex-Servicemen who have been doing similar work during the war, and who appreciate their fellow-Servicemen's point of view. It might also be suggested that Disablement Rehabilitation Officers should be accompanied by workers of the same type and grade as the disabled man who is being interviewed.
The difficulties which have already been experienced in administer- ing the re-employment of the disabled at a national and centralised level should be taken as a warning that it will not be possible to fulfil the requirements of placement, as envisaged by the Dis- abled Persons (Employment) Act, 1944, fully and properly without the active, decentralised and specialised assistance of employers in the various branches of industry. It is the factory which should be regarded as the proper cell for the development of these services. It is here that by continuous case-work technical and economic knowledge about job-selection can be made available ; it is here that the disabled worker—if a helpful industrial management is pro- vided—will find the most suitable guidance because here is his occupa- tional " home." " Experience has shown," writes the International Labour Office, " that it is essential to maintain employer-worker collaboration in the placement of disabled persons." Where factories are too small to supply this service, groups of the smaller factories should be formed, with full workers' representation, to deal with such problems as job analysis and the care for the best personal, social and economic employment or re-employment of disabled workers and returning Servicemen in particular. It is to be regretted that in the new industrial injuries bill there is no provison for "con- tracting-out 'Schemes," though some of them have provided, under the present Workmen's Compensation law, just that sort of collec- tive organisation which is required to make placement of impaired workers at the factory level a success. As experience, and to some extent disappointment increases, central departments may come to the conclusion that close collaboration with factory, local or group organi- sations of employers and employees is essential to secure success in a matter so vital to the nation's social welfare.
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