Filenews 6 October 2020
A bill, which gives the Power to the Minister
of Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance to issue a decision to extend until 31
March 2021 the period of emergency measures to support workers, self-employed
workers and businesses to deal with the COVID19 pandemic, was discussed today
by the Labour Committee of the House, in the presence of the Minister of Labour
Zetas Emilianidou.
At the same time, the bill gives the Power to the Minister of Labour to credit contributions to the Social Insurance Fund of employees and self-employed persons so that they do not have to pay their own contributions from last March when the implementation of the exceptional measures began until March 2021 when the period will be extended on the basis of a decision of the Council of Ministers.
The
Commission has today urgently debated the bill so that it can be put before the
Council of Ministers next Friday, before the power of the Minister of Labour to
adopt decisions extending the period of exceptional measures to support
workers, self-employed persons and businesses expires on 12 October.
At the same time, the Minister of Labour announced before the
Commission that other projects specifically for hotel employees based at the
European Social Fund and the Human Resources Development Authority which are
not related to this authorisation will be approved by the Council of Ministers.
"There will be a special training plan so that under the
social security law, any project designated by the Minister concerning training
for the unemployed and issued by the Human Resources Development Authority is
regarded as employment," he explained.
Ms Aimilianidou said these workers would be put into safety,
health and hygiene training "so that these six months in this training
plan would also be considered continuous employment" and they would be
entitled to unemployment benefit afterwards. He added that this project would
also apply to employees who are beneficiaries of the project and others.
Speaking to the Labour Committee about the bill before the House,
Ms Aimilianidou said that "the authorisation given by law to issue
decisions on terms and conditions for specific projects relating to exceptional
measures taken as a result of the pandemic expires on 12 October 2020"
with the result that for the following months until March 2021 "I cannot
issue decisions on the basis of the previous law".
"On the basis of the data we believe that authorisation
should be given by the end of March 2021," said Ms. Emilianidou, noting
that once the bill is passed she will discuss with the social partners an
amendment to the plans.
The Minister of Labour also asked Members to give her the power to
amend some articles of the Social Security Act in order to be able to make
credits and at the same time, as she explained, to regard the work of someone
participating in the special projects as continuous employment in order to
qualify for unemployment benefit after the end of the projects in March 2021.
Referring to all the projects that exist, the Minister of Labour
explained that there are plans relating to the coronavirus pandemic and there
are also the plans of the European Social Fund based on the Human Resources
Development Authority and all these projects cover the recruitment of
unemployed people, provided that companies have not made redundancies and have
not reduced wages.
With regard to companies that no longer want to participate in the
projects, Ms. Emilianidou warned that "those companies that will lay off
staff or reduce wages without following the industrial relations code procedure
in the Department of Industrial Relations or will reduce working hours without
the appropriate discussion in the Department of Industrial Relations, one day
the pandemic will end" and these companies will not be entitled to
redundancy and will have to compensate their employees , because it is
considered a temporary reduction in their turnover.
"There are dozens of labour court rulings that say that any
temporary reduction in turnover is not seen as a reason for redundancy,"
he stressed, stressing that when the pandemic is over, requests for these
companies that exist by dozens for the recruitment of students and foreign
workers will not be approved for these companies.
He said these are all Cabinet decisions and that there are
incentives and disincentives, noting that "a good employer who respects
the laws and appreciates his staff can also process and implement his requests
in a much shorter period of time."
In addition, the Minister of Labour said she was concerned and
would consider whether a company would be entitled to participate in government
support plans when one month (e.g. August) it had a profitability and turnover
that meets its needs, despite the fact that next November it has a turnover
reduction.
A Treasury spokesman supported the bill, saying the economy still
needs support because of the uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic.
Eyenews/AFP