The 5% public employment target for people with disabilities

It is a target with a number: every agency, dependency and public corporation of the Government of Puerto Rico must have at least 5% qualified persons with disabilities on its payroll. It helps to know what it is and is not. It is public policy with an audit and an annual report naming which agencies comply and which do not. It is not a reserved slot or a right you claim in a specific job competition: the Act creates no individual complaint and no penalty for missing it.

The Act counts the “qualified person with disabilities.” It defines “person with disabilities” through three doors: someone who has a physical, mental, cognitive or sensory impairment that substantially limits one or more essential life activities; someone with a history or medical record of such an impairment; or someone who “is regarded as having” such an impairment. And it defines “qualified” as someone who “legitimately possesses the skills, education or other requirements or qualities necessary for the job to which they aspire or which they have obtained and for which they are able to perform its essential functions, with or without reasonable accommodation.” The phrase “with or without reasonable accommodation” is from the text and it is what stops you being ruled out for needing an accommodation.

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The number, and who is bound

   Article 3 is a single sentence: “It is established as public policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico that agencies, dependencies and public corporations include in their workforce at least five (5) per cent of qualified persons with disabilities.” And the scope definition closes any escape: it covers “every department, agency, instrumentality, office and every other body of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, including every public corporation, its subsidiaries or any governmental entity with its own legal personality, created by law or that may be created in the future, without any exception.”

2. 2

   Step 2: The phase-in deadline has already passed

   We put it this way so nobody reads the phase-in as ongoing. Article 4 provides that “It shall be the duty of each agency, dependency or public corporation to meet the percentage established as public policy within four (4) years of this Act’s approval. The percentage shall be met gradually at a rate of one point twenty-five (1.25) per cent per year.” The Act is from 2006: those four years ended long ago. The 5% is not a future target, it is an obligation whose deadline has passed.

3. 3

   Step 3: There is an audit, and a report with names

   This is what makes the target verifiable. Article 4 empowers the Government’s human resources office “to audit compliance with this Act” and requires it to create the regulations on adherence. And Article 5 adds the report: it shall be the duty of the Office for the Defence of Persons with Disabilities, together with that office, “to prepare and submit annually to the Governor... and to the Legislative Assembly... a detailed and comprehensive report evidencing compliance or non-compliance by the agencies, dependencies or public corporations with this Act’s provisions; as well as the actions, steps or other agreements established and the necessary amendments.” We read no report, so we publish no figures for any agency.

4. 4

   Step 4: Agencies had to amend their own regulations

   The same Article 4 orders it: consistent with the human resources office’s regulations, agencies “shall have to adopt or amend the pertinent regulations to guarantee the recruitment of persons with disabilities allowing them to reach the five (5) per cent established here within the term provided.” If you are asking an agency about its recruitment policy, that regulation is the document the Act required it to have.

5. 5

   Step 5: Who watches: two offices, not one

   Article 5 splits oversight between the Office for the Defence of Persons with Disabilities and the Government’s human resources office. On the latter a precision is worth making: the Act’s text names the office created under Act 184-2004, and OGP’s compilation notes in brackets that it was replaced by the Office of Human Resources Administration and Transformation of the Government of Puerto Rico (OATRH) under Act 8-2017. That note is an OGP annotation, not the legislature’s text, and we identify it as such. We read neither Act 184-2004 nor Act 8-2017.

6. 6

   Step 6: What this Act does not give you

   We say this so the expectation is right and you do not lose time. Act 219-2006 has six articles: title, definitions, the 5% policy, the deadline and the audit, the oversight and the report, and the effective date. It creates no individual complaint procedure. It sets no penalty for an agency that falls short of 5%. It gives you no reserved slot or preference in a specific competition. If what you face is disability discrimination in a hiring process, that is a different route and we have separate guides, including the one on the Defensoría, which does adjudicate complaints.

7. 7

   Step 7: Being “regarded as” disabled also counts

   The definition’s third door is overlooked and it is the one protecting someone with no active diagnosis. The Act counts whoever “has a physical, mental, cognitive or sensory impairment that substantially limits one or more essential life activities; has a history or medical record of a physical, mental, cognitive or sensory impairment; or is regarded as having a physical, mental, cognitive or sensory impairment.” Past history and others’ perception are in the text, alongside the current impairment.

There is nothing to apply for under this Act: it is a workforce target with an audit, not a candidate procedure. Recruitment happens in each agency’s own posting, under the regulations this Act required them to adopt or amend. The audit and rulemaking belong to the Government’s human resources office; the oversight and annual report, to that office together with the Office for the Defence of Persons with Disabilities, which has its own guide and does adjudicate complaints.

• Believing the 5% reserves you a post: it is a workforce target, not a slot in a specific competition.
• Thinking the phase-in is still running: the four years ran from 2006 and have expired.
• Assuming there is a fine if the agency falls short of 5%: this Act sets no penalty at all.
• Ruling yourself out for needing an accommodation: the definition of “qualified” expressly says “with or without reasonable accommodation.”
• Believing only an active diagnosis counts: a history or medical record and being regarded as disabled also count.
• Thinking public corporations are outside: the definition includes them, with their subsidiaries, “without any exception.”

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Administración y Transformación de los Recursos Humanos (OATRH)

  OATRH

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov