The legislative bill 7699/06 that institutes the Brazilian Law on Integration of the Disabled Person was approved by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies during a session held on March, 5th. The bill formerly known as the Statute of Persons with Disabilities prescribes benefits and guarantees for disabled people and will be submitted for approval and analysis by the Federal Senate.

The text of the bill defines person with disability as those possessing any long term physical, intellectual, sensory or mental impairments, limitations, or restrictions that may sometimes prevent such individuals to socially interact with other individuals, placing this person in a condition of inequality before the others, emphatically ensuring to this group of disabled people basic access to daily life in society in different social spheres.

One point especially worthy of note is the expansion of the quota system for employment of disabled and rehabilitated workers at companies having 50 or 99 employees.  In this case, the companies will have to reserve a vacancy among their staff/workforce for referred group of workers. The legislation currently in force lays down that the quotas shall apply only to companies with more than 100 employees, varying from 2% to 5% in the company´s staff.

Another significant change is the alteration to the Bidding Law no. 8,666/93. According to the new text of this law, it will be possible to have priority in the bidding processes for participant companies that evidence compliance with the new system of reservation of jobs/posts for disabled persons at the companies´ staff whose change would promote compliance with the new law.

The text with the new rules will be pending before the Senate, and will be submitted for analysis by the Commission on Human Rights and Legislative Participation chaired by Senator Paulo Paim in the second quarter of 2015.