Poll says 52% of Ukrainian employers fear psychological problems of disabled war veterans

This is evidenced by the study "Protecting defenders. Is Ukraine ready to employ veterans with disabilities?", presented at Ukrinform by Andriy Zaitsev with the You Are with Us charity.

"Under a quarter of employers see no special circumstances that would hinder the employment of veterans with disabilities, 24% are cautious, but ready to employ disabled veterans, 52% say they are afraid of psychological problems, peculiarities of the veterans’ behavior, 19% see as a serious obstacle alcoholism and drug addiction, to which, in their opinion, our veterans are prone," Zaitsev said.

The study found that the employment of this category of veterans is generally hampered by the same reasons that apply to all disabled persons. This includes, in particular, the need to create special conditions and adapt their workplace, as well as a lack of desire to work or study according to the requirements set by employers, and problems with laying them off.

The average share of employees with disabilities at all surveyed companies was slightly more than 5%.

It is noted that on average, the level of how employers are satisfied with the performance of disabled employees is quite high, standing at 3.8 points on a five-point scale. At the same time, the average level of satisfaction with employees in general ranges from 3.5 to 4.5 points.

According to the study, every 20th employer believes that the government should pay veterans with disabilities a decent pension so that they could be able to remain unemployed.

The research was run by the You Are with Us charitable foundation in April-July through a questionnaire and a phone survey, keeping business owners and managers anonymous.

About 500 employers from all regions of Ukraine, representing all sectors of the economy, took part in the poll.