Demonstrations by disability rights activists are planned at today's ADA anniversary celebration at the Capitol.
LANSING -- Disability rights activists say they will protest at an Americans with Disabilities Act celebration at the Capitol today because some sponsors of the event pay certain workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage and because the Capitol itself is not fully ADA-compliant.
The activists say the practice of paying certain disabled people less than the minimum wage is exploitative and goes against the principle that people with disabilities should be integrated as equal members of society at large.
But defenders of the practice say such jobs are a learning experience for severely disabled people who wouldn't otherwise be able to work but benefit by contributing to society and through the social interaction of the workplace.
Peckham, Inc., a Lansing nonprofit that hires and trains disabled people to manufacture and package products for the federal government and private employers, is among the sponsors of the event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Some of Peckharm's workers earn only about $2 an hour under an exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act that allows Peckham and similar employers to pay them less than the minimum wage. Another sponsor is MARO -- Removing Barriers to Community Access, an association which includes employers who pay disabled people less than the minimum wage.
The wage issue, the sponsors, and the fact the Capitol Building where the celebration is planned is still not fully ADA-compliant, is drawing disability rights demonstrators from across Michigan and a few from outside the state.
"Many Michiganders with disabilities were shocked to learn that the very sponsors of the rally to celebrate the disability community’s most important civil right law were the perpetrators of sub-minimum wages, a practice that inhibits equal employment opportunities to Michiganders with disabilities," disability rights activists Susan Fitzmaurice of West Bloomfield and Eleanor Canter of Muskegon said in a news release.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, prohibits discrimination based on disability, imposes accessibility requirements on public facilities and requires covered employers to reasonably accommodate employees with disabilities.
The practice of paying certain people with disabilities less than the minimum wage is not unique to Michigan. It's estimated about 400,000 people with disabilities across the nation are paid less than the minimum wage. But the activists say Michigan stands out because many of the employers who pay sub-minimum wage to the disabled, such as Peckham and MARO, have leadership roles in organizations and events that are supposed to advocate for or celebrate disability rights.
Kelly Buckland, executive director of the National Council on Independent Living in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday he was to be the keynote speaker at today's event, scheduled for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.. on the Capitol lawn, but he canceled over the wage and sponsorship issue.
Tom Olin, director of the Road to Freedom Bus Tour promoting rights for people with disabilities, initially canceled his appearance at the anniversary celebration, but later said he would bring the bus to Lansing in support of the protesters.
"There are people still making money off of people with disabilities," Olin told the Free Press Wednesday.
Mitchell Tomlinson, the CEO of Peckham, said Wednesday that 84 of Peckham's roughly 1,700 employees are paid below the minimum wage, receiving in some cases between about $1.84 and $5.52 an hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and the Michigan minimum wage is $8.15 per hour.
He said the special wages are paid only to workers referred to Peckham by local community mental health agencies. The lower wage is a productivity issue and the workers who are paid it would otherwise be unemployable, he said.
He said they want to work and benefit from it as a form of training that also improves their social skills. Most of the workers who receive less than minimum wage are packaging items related to contracts with private employers and work limited hours that supplements the Social Security income they receive, he said.
"All of them have informed choice," Tomlinson said. "It's not like they're being forced to work here."
In 2012, the most recent year for which federal income tax returns for Peckham are available, Tomlinson received base pay of $312,556, a bonus of $100,000, other reportable compensation of $19,259, and retirement and other deferred compensation of $72,950, for a total compensation of more than $500,000, records show.
Asked twice if he had any qualms about receiving that level of compensation while paying workers with disabilities as little as $2 an hour, Tomlinson did not respond.
But Greta Wu, senior vice president of human services at Peckham, who also participated in the interview, said it's not a fair comparison because the workers who are receiving less than minimum wage are in a program that is more educational than competitive employment.
Buckland said the arguments made by Tomlinson are commonly made by employers who pay less than minimum wage to people with disabilities.
"The whole claim that working for pennies an hour is better than no work at all is not good enough for the rest of the public and I'm not sure why people think it's good enough for the disabled," Buckland said.
Another issue cited by protesters is that the Capitol, which was dedicated in 1879 and extensively renovated between 1990 and 1992, is not fully compliant with the ADA. It lacks Braille signage and the front steps of the Capitol, typically used by speakers at public demonstrations, are not accessible to people in wheelchairs.
Fitzmaurice said it's not that there isn't much to celebrate about the ADA, but it's inappropriate to hold an ADA celebration around a building that is not compliant and problems at the Capitol and other state buildings show Michigan government has not made ADA compliance a priority.
Dan Brocklehurst, Capitol facilities director, said the restrooms in the Capitol have Braille signage and the installation of other Braille signs is in the works. It's very difficult to make the front steps of the Capitol accessible to people in wheelchairs, he said.
"There's no easy solution due to the historic nature of the building," he said.
The main organizer of today's ADA anniversary celebration at the Capitol is Disability Network/Michigan. Its CEO, Sara Grivetti, issued a statement late Wednesday that said the organization "does not support the continued use of paying sub-minimum wages to people with disabilities."
Todd Culver, executive director of MARO, said on the wage issue that "though the optimal goal shall be competitive, integrated employment, intermediate steps and services may be needed to assist people along their path to that desired outcome," and "this provision in the law creates employment opportunities that might not otherwise exist for individuals with significant disabilities."
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.
Link: http://www.freep.com/story/news/2015/09/16/2-hour-disabled-workers-protest-planned-today/32505239/
