The Legal Status of Persons with Disabilities in Rehabilitation, Training, and Sheltered Employment Programmes
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Rehabilitation, vocational training, and sheltered employment were examined as settings that can support persons with disabilities while creating uncertainty about the legal status of productive activity. The problem arose when a programme was formally described as training or rehabilitation although participants performed recurring work under organisational direction and received payment connected to that work. This study used normative legal research with Indonesian employment and disability law as its principal legal materials. Article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and General Comment No. 8 provided the international disability rights framework. Peer reviewed research was used as secondary material to clarify the institutional features of sheltered work, vocational rehabilitation, and supported employment. The analysis found that programme terminology should not operate as a preliminary exemption from employment status review. Under Indonesian law, work, wages, orders, and the existence of a work agreement remained central. Regular scheduling, productive integration, and economic benefit were relevant only when they assisted interpretation of those legal elements. A substance based review was proposed to distinguish genuine rehabilitation or training from arrangements in which ordinary labour protection may already be legally relevant.
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