Filenews 25 March 2024 - by Adamos Adamou
The two incentive schemes for hiring the unemployed recently approved by the Council of Ministers and for which the Ministry of Labour began accepting applications last Wednesday have a twofold, if not threefold, objective.
Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou himself, announcing the new incentive schemes, placed them in the framework of government policy to further activate domestic human resources and achieve the goal of creating conditions of full employment.
The two projects, both funded by the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility, aim to reduce unemployment, especially youth unemployment, promote teleworking and meet labour market needs.
Through incentives, i.e. subsidizing the wage costs of businesses/employers for new hires of unemployed who are registered with the Public Employment Service.
The total budget of both schemes amounts to €11,694,000, with the aim of employing 1,265 people who are registered unemployed with the Public Employment Service, with most of the money going to the plan for the recruitment of young unemployed.
Specifically, based on the invitation issued by the Department of Labour of the Ministry of Labour for the "Incentive Scheme for the Employment of Young People aged 15 to 29 who are not in Employment, Education or Training NEETs combined with two-month training", the total amount of €7.824.00 will be made available. For the "Incentive Scheme for the Employment of the Unemployed by providing flexible forms of work through Teleworking" an amount of €3,870,000 will be allocated.
Until 31/5 for young unemployed
Based on the invitation of the Department of Labour, applications – from businesses – for participation in the incentive scheme for the recruitment of young unemployed people began to be accepted from the 20th of the month and their submission will continue until 31/5/2024. However, if the budget of ECU 7.8 million is used up, it will not be possible to do so. Before 31/5/2024, the process of receiving applications will be terminated with relevant notifications made through the press and the website of the Department of Labour, where all the details of the "Incentive Scheme for the Employment of Young People aged 15 to 29 who are not in Employment, Education or Training (Not in Education, Employment, or Training NEETs) combined with two months' training'.
Unlike previous incentive schemes for the recruitment of young unemployed, the new plan also provides for two-month training, for which a lump sum of €1000 will be given to employers. Based on the formal call for the project, this aims to alleviate unemployment among young people aged between 15 and 29 who are not in education or training and to sustainably integrate young people into the labour market through placement in subsidised jobs and work experience combined with two months of training. The aim is the training and placement/recruitment of 815 people of the target group.
The unit of cost
The calculation of the amount of the grant will be based on the method of simplified forms of cost. The cost unit for this Subsidy Scheme was set at €48/working day and corresponds to the amount of the grant that each beneficiary will receive for each working day completed by the beneficiary, regardless of the actual wage costs borne by the employer/beneficiary.
The grant, mentioned in the call, is added to 14 consecutive months of employment as follows:
⦁ Two (2) months of training
⦁ Twelve (12) months of continuous employment (ten (10) months of subsidized employment and two (2) months of compulsory employment, without subsidy).
The maximum grant limit is set at €8,600 per participation in the Scheme, with an additional amount of €1,000, corresponding to the two-month training.
The two-month training grant, which will be considered part of the total period of employment of the beneficiary, will be paid after the completion of the training period as a lump sum, which will be included in the first request for payment of the grant.
Training, as recorded in the project guide, is considered to be any kind of training, provision or acquisition of the necessary skills to carry out a specific task, which may be either in-house or offered by other approved bodies, provided that it will not receive a grant from another source of funding.
The plan clarifies that recruitment and commencement of employment cannot take place after the submission of the application for participation in the scheme and that the effective start of employment is considered to be the 1st day of training, which will also be considered as the date of recruitment.
Specifically, the application must be submitted within one month from the start date of the two-month training, i.e. if the candidate for employment is hired 20/3/24, the application for participation can be submitted from 20/3/24 until 19/4/24 (31 days – maximum acceptable number from the start date of the training).
Sponsorships for teleworking
The second plan to subsidize the wage costs of hiring the unemployed does not impose any age restriction, but provides for the employment of young workers by teleworking. The aim of the "Incentive Scheme for the Employment of the Unemployed by providing flexible forms of work through Teleworking" is, specifically, the placement of 450 people of the target group.
Applications for participation in the scheme, concerning businesses, as the unemployed do not need to do anything beyond their existing registration with the Public Employment Service or their registration if they are not registered with the PES, have also started to be accepted from the 20th of the month and will be submitted until the budget is exhausted or the project is announced.
The unit cost for this Subsidy Scheme was set at €48/accrued day and corresponds to the amount of the grant that each beneficiary will receive for each accrued day completed by the beneficiary, regardless of the actual wage costs borne by the employer/beneficiary.
The subsidy will be provided for ten (10) months of continuous employment, with the employer's obligation to maintain the employee's employment for another two (2) months without subsidy. The maximum grant limit was set at €8,600 per participation in the Scheme. The target group of the scheme is the registered unemployed in the Public Employment Service up to one day before or on the date of their recruitment, which should concern 30% and teleworking.
All information on incentive schemes and related applications can be found on the website of the Department of Labour.
