THE GOVERNMENT, along with the European Union are allocating €4 million as part of a new plan to bolster employment, it was announced yesterday.
The new plan of business subsidies should be up and running by next month, Labour Minister Sotiroulla Charalambous said yesterday.
“The timeframe is for the plan to run within the first 15 days of March … so that we put to use this tool in the battle to support employment,” the minister said.
The plan is co-funded by the EU with an initial budget of €4 million.
The aim is to use up all the funds within 2010.
Businesses will on one hand utilise their current staff and not lay people off while at the same time prepare a plan of action that will help them recover and prepare for the period after the crisis, Charalambous said.
Details of the plan will be announced in the coming weeks, the minister said.
Speaking after a meeting of the employment committee, which includes trade unions, Charalambous said it was decided to improve the current government plan to help businesses hire unemployed people.
The plan involves subsidising the hiring of people who had been unemployed for at least four months.
The scheme provides for the state to pay 30 per cent of the salary, for six months, with a ceiling of €3,000 annually; the employer would have to keep the subsidised worker on the job for a minimum of eight months.
The minister said the state has increased the subsidy to 60 per cent and scrapped the provision that someone had to be unemployed for at least four months to be eligible.
“Someone who is unemployed can immediately benefit from the plan as long as there is an employer to hire them,” Charalambous said.
She added: “The main target and focus of the ministry’s actions remains the support of businesses so that they maintain their manpower. At the same time our effort is to support the unemployed so that they find employment as soon as possible.”
Charalambous said the ministry will continue to crack down on illegal and undeclared employment with special emphasis on the tourist industry “where it seems there is a high percentage.”
“Undeclared work should is a phenomenon that should not be allowed, more so at times when jobs are lost,” Charalambous said.
The number of unemployed people, registered at the District Labour Offices on the last day of January 2010, had reached 23,645.
Based on the seasonally adjusted data, the number of registered unemployed was 19,897 in January recording an increase of 1.3 per cent compared to the previous month.
