Iberdrola collaborates with Broseta and the Adecco and Prodis foundations on a project aimed at people with intellectual disabilities
Iberdrola has launched, through its Legal and Tax Services and together with the law firm Broseta, a collaboration agreement for pro bono activities with Fundación Adecco and Fundación Prodis to reduce barriers to access to the labour market for people with intellectual disabilities.
This collaboration is part of the Building Together project, a multidisciplinary programme through which the company's legal professionals, in collaboration with more than 10 law firms, provide training services and legal and tax advice of the highest quality to non-profit organisations.
The signing, which took place at Iberdrola's offices in Valencia, was attended by Santiago Martínez Garrido, Secretary General and Secretary of the Board of Iberdrola; Rosa Vidal Monferrer, Managing Partner of Broseta; Valle Oñate Dancausa, Managing Director of Prodis; and Arancha Jiménez Ceballos, Director of Strategy, Fundraising and Development of the Adecco Foundation.
According to Iberdrola's secretary general, thanks to this agreement ‘the legal professionals at Broseta and Iberdrola intend that the legal knowledge transmitted through this alliance will act as a lever for reducing inequalities and in favour of the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace, and the informed accompaniment of both their families and the entities that support them’.
According to Broseta's managing partner, this alliance ‘represents a very interesting opportunity for pro bono work, a practice to which Broseta feels very committed, as well as the satisfaction of working together with Iberdrola, one of the firm's reference clients, and with the Prodis Foundation and the Adecco Foundation, with which we have been collaborating regularly on various pro bono initiatives’.
The Director General of the Prodis Foundation highlighted the importance of this type of alliance, ‘key for organisations such as Prodis, which allows us to continue supporting people with disabilities and their families, who are often uninformed. Favouring clear, simple and reliable communication from experts such as Iberdrola's legal services and the Broseta law firm is an immense opportunity that will undoubtedly facilitate access to the labour market for our users’.
For her part, the strategy director of the Adecco Foundation said she was ‘deeply grateful to the Iberdrola and Broseta legal teams, who so generously put their knowledge at the service of the people who need it most. Through this collaboration we are going to respond to one of the major barriers that have traditionally hindered access to employment for people with intellectual disabilities: lack of knowledge of the legal framework, which triggers fears in both themselves and their families’.
‘After 25 years working for inclusion, we can see that when a person with an intellectual disability knows and understands their employment rights, they face the job search process with much greater confidence, knowing that they have the necessary resources to face the challenges and/or difficulties that may arise. Similarly, the training of families, entities and, in general, of those who accompany people with intellectual disabilities, is also decisive to support and guide, ensuring that people with disabilities can develop a fair and sustainable professional career over time’, added the representative of the Adecco Foundation.
A major challenge
People with intellectual disabilities continue to face major obstacles in finding a job, as the latest official figures show. In particular, their activity or labour participation rate (36.4%) is 41.4 percentage points lower than that of the rest of the population - 63.6% of people with intellectual disabilities of working age do not have a job and are not looking for one.
Likewise, the employment rate is another major indicator that shows this inequality: only 23.8% of people with intellectual disabilities are working, a percentage that is 27.3 points lower than the national average.
Legal literacy: key to employment inclusion
Behind these figures lie structural barriers that hinder access to employment for people with disabilities: prejudice, overprotection, lack of previous experience and a general lack of knowledge that slows down the process of inclusion. In this sense, training in the legal field is essential, not only to protect and guarantee the rights of people with intellectual disabilities, but also to open the doors to the labour market, providing them with the necessary tools to access opportunities and develop sustainable professional careers.
In addition, it is also important to provide specific legal knowledge to the entities and people who accompany people with intellectual disabilities in their employment pathway, so that they can serve as a guide and support in the most relevant legal aspects.
The alliance aims to transmit to people with intellectual disabilities, their families and the entities that accompany them, the necessary legal knowledge to diligently approach their access to employment, enabling them to make informed decisions and prevent situations of abuse and/or discrimination.
