EMERGENCY SUPPORT MEASURES TO BE EXTENDED TO MARCH 2021

 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