Seeliger y Conde Foundation

The Seeliger y Conde Foundation is a non-profit initiative to help integrate people with disabilities into the workforce.

Since 2002 Seeliger y Conde, through its Workpoint project, has managed a non-profit Job Bank for people with disabilities (people with the "disabled certificate" issued by the Spanish government, which certifies a disability of 33% or greater). The Job Bank, a service which is free of charge-- for companies wishing to hire people as well as for candidates looking for a position-- has successfully placed over 300 disabled people in job positions.

In February 2009 the partners of Seeliger y Conde constituted the Seeliger y Conde Foundation, whose aim is to grow and expand the Job Bank and to widen the breadth of activities to be carried out in favour of people with disabilities.

The objectives of the Seeliger y Conde Foundation are:

• Job placement for people with disabilities.
• Improve professional perspectives for people with disabilities.
• Promote education and training for people with disabilities, so that they may join the work force.
• Help companies identify opportunities to hire people with disabilities, and help them comply with the Law for the Social Integration of the Handicapped.
• Raise public awareness and consciousness of the need to integrate people with disabilities into society.

What do we do?

The Foundation focuses its efforts on three main lines of activity:

1. Job searches for people with disabilities, through the Job Bank. Functioning since 2002.

Beginning in 2009-2010 the Foundation will also work in the following areas:

2. Education/ training. Scholarships for university studies, post-graduate studies, professional training. Joint collaborations, with other organizations, on education projects. Organize training courses on specific issues that are being demanded by the market.
3. Participate in conferences, forums, other actions intended to increase public awareness of the need to successfully integrate people with disabilities into society. Promote legislation that favors integration.

Some facts on disabilities in the world

Approximately 9% of the world’s population (about 600 million people) has some sort of disability.

In Spain, about 3,8 million people (8,5% of the population) have a disability. Of these, approximately one million are of prime working age (between 20 and 50 years old).

20% of Spanish households have at least one member with a disability.

People with disabilities have greater difficulties finding a job, and very few of them manage to achieve a professional career.

In Spain, amongst those 16-64 years old: only 28% of people with disabilities are currently working, compared with 62% of the general population.

People with disabilities disproportionately work in jobs that are of inferior quality than the average.

• Amongst people with disabilities who are currently working, more than 33% work in the "secondary sector of the labor market" (job positions that are temporary and precarious/unstable).

There is an important correlation between disability and poverty.

Legislation: the Law for the Social Integration of the Handicapped regulates and promotes the integration into the workforce of people with disabilities.

The Law for the Social Integration of the Handicapped (Law 13/ 1982 Art.38.1 LISMI) states that in all public and private companies that employ more than 50 "fixed" employees, at least 2% of the workforce must be people with disabilities.

The Spanish government offers monetary incentives to promote hiring of people with disabilities. For each indefinite contract:

• Subsidy of up to 6.300€ per year.
• Discount on the corporate contribution to Social Security:
  • If employee is > 45 years old: 70% for men, 90% for women.
  • If employee is < 45 years old: 90% for men, 100% for women.
• In the first year, a discount of 6.000€ on Spanish Corporate Income Tax.
• Subsidy for professional training.
• Subsidy of up to 901,52€ to make necessary adaptions in the work place.

Those companies that are unable to comply with the 2% quota requirement may instead turn to "Medidas Alternativas". It is an option offered by the Spanish government that allows companies to meet the quota requirement in either of two alternative ways:

• Make a donation to a foundation whose mission is to provide professional training, promote job placements and employment opportunities, and create job positions for people with disabilities. Quantity must be 1,5 times the Minimum Wage (Salario Mínimo Interprofesional, thereafter to be referred to as S.M.I.) for each employee needed to meet the 2% requirement.
• Contract with a Special Employment Center (Centro Especial de Empleo, thereafter to be referred to as CEE), or with an autonomous worker with a disability, for the purchase of raw materials, equipment or machinery. Or for the purchase of services that are external and subsidiary to the principal activity of the company. Quantity must be 3 times the S.M.I. for each employee needed to meet the 2% requirement.

---

If you wish to receive more information about the Seeliger y Conde Foundation, or wish to collaborate, you may contact us at the following address. We are also at your disposal for consultations, or if you wish to do the following:

• Offer an employment position through the Job Bank. Free of charge.
• Send us your CV.
• Make a donation. Given that the Seeliger y Conde Foundation is considered by Spanish law a "Fundación de Utilidad Pública" and may therefore take advantage of benefits of the Spanish "Ley del Mecenazgo", all donations are deductible from Spanish Corporate Income Tax).
• Make a donation through "Medidas Alternativas". We will take care of all the required documentation and administer the process.