Hotel honoured as employer of year

A Lethbridge hotel’s management has been singled out as “employer of the year.”

But the city’s long-serving Rehabilitation Society says hundreds of companies are now hiring workers with a disability when they can.

“We have lots of open-minded employers,” reports Paige McCann Sauter, executive director of the Ability Resource Centre and the JobLinks Employment Centre, divisions of the Rehabilitation Society of Southwestern Alberta.

During an employer appreciation event Wednesday, managers of the Premier Inn and Suites were presented this year’s award.

“They have gone above and beyond,” McCann Sauter says, not just hiring someone with a disability but taking steps to improve her personal situation as well.

In its 15 years of operation, she says, JobLinks has worked with more than 200 employers in Lethbridge and area.

“We want to celebrate local employers who know the real advantages of hiring people with disabilities,” she says. “They deserve to be appreciated.”

And so do men and women who are determined to become productive citizens despite challenges.

“JobLinks supports hundreds of people each year to prepare, find and maintain employment.”

Community groups across Alberta are celebrating “Disability Employment Awareness Month,” she points out.

It’s aimed at raising public awareness about disability employment issues and promoting employment inclusion for people with varying abilities, as well as celebrating those workers and their skills, successes and achievements in the workplace.

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