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“The situation is paradoxical, since registered unemployment is increasing, but the number of employed does not decrease or decrease very slightly. We are practically approaching the employment level of February. This paradox can be explained in several respects. First, there are a number of returning migrants who have not worked or had a job before. Some find work and others register with the Employment Service.
Some of the unemployed are students because the Constitutional Court has clarified that students can receive unemployment benefits. And, of course, a considerable part, about 30 thousand. people came because of a temporary job search allowance, which is paid to everyone, regardless of whether they had a time of service or not, ”L. Kukuraitis told Eltai.
According to L. Kukuraitis, although the job search benefit helped prevent the population from entering the social support system en masse, it also generated tensions in the labor market, since the 200 euros allocated to the unemployed became a challenge for attract people to work due to the low wages paid by some employers.
“Benefit has played several important roles. Helped people not to enter the social support system, unlike in 2009 or 2010. At that time, no such cushion was created and the number of welfare recipients multiplied by six, and it is very difficult for people to leave the system (social assistance – ELTA). In practice, for 10 years, municipalities have had to work diligently to make fewer and fewer people depend on the social support system and for people to live off their wages.
Still, (Job Search Benefit – ELTA) is a source of tension in the job market, and we understand that. Some people leave the social assistance system and therefore no longer have to work to obtain social security benefits. This puts pressure on employers, especially those who hired people for relatively small funds. Even so, those 200 euros, it turns out, is a challenge to attract people to the labor market, because, unfortunately, the employers paid very low salaries ”, said the minister.
L. Kukuraitis pointed out that it is intended to more strictly control the conditions for granting the job search benefit and not to grant it to those who abuse it and reject the job offered. The minister added that the benefit also revealed a greater degree of shadow in the labor market.
“She (Job Search Benefit – ELTA) has also shown a shadow, because some people get this benefit even while working somewhere, and when we make offers, they say they can’t work for a variety of reasons. But the real reason it’s that they are busy, working somewhere and earning illegal income, ”he said.
“Through benefits, we reach a greater number of people. We see how many people are employed, how many are in the Employment Service and we realize that a significant proportion of the population is in the gray zone: neither works nor is registers as unemployed. (…) They are not necessarily in the shadows, there are also mothers who are raising children, who do not have insurance, do not work anywhere, do not have independent activities “, added L. Kukuraitis.
According to the minister, the job search benefit could also have become an incentive to give up self-employment due to low income or to decide to continue working on their own illegally while receiving a state benefit.
“When self-employment benefits ended in late August, we saw a trend of at least 5,000. people stopped being self-employed and registered as unemployed. Consequently, they estimated that they had earned less than the 200 euro benefit from the business license or individual activity, or had decided to continue working illegally. We have paid a lot of attention to these cases, both from the State Tax Inspectorate and the State Labor Inspectorate, and we wonder if those job search benefits did not encourage such activity. But we are talking about 5 thousand. people, when the total number of self-employed is 140-150 thousand. This means that there were no big waves ”, commented the minister.
Speaking of measures to reduce the shadow labor market, L. Kukuraitis first mentions subsidies to employers who employ persons registered with the Employment Service.
“The tools available to establish legal employment are quite good. For example, all companies that employ people in the Employment Service affected by COVID-19 now automatically receive subsidies for their employment. This means that employers are encouraged to show legal wages and receive state compensation for payment of those wages.
Thus, the subsidy for temporary job search seemed to provoke certain movements for the emergence, expansion or change of a possible shadow in it, but, on the other hand, there was an incentive strong enough for employers to give official salary and receive subsidies ” commented L. Kukuraitis.
The minister added that the subsidies to employers also caused the withdrawal of applications for sick leave, which could show shady manifestations in companies, and an increase in wages in general.
Some companies withdrew their downtime requests because they realized that the displayed downtime payment was highly inappropriate in the context of the industry as a whole, and that when they requested those benefits, they revealed some potential shady manifestations in the companies . That part of the companies just dropped out, and some began to show higher wages in order to get part of the compensation for that subsidized work. Through subsidies, we encourage the emergence of higher wages and better guarantees for employees, ”said L. Kukuraitis.
Commenting on the regulation of teleworking, the Minister stated that the Labor Code leaves many teleworking issues to the agreement between the employer and the employee, in addition to the issues of job security at home and accounting of working time. L. Kukuraitis emphasized that as more and more people start working remotely, the regulation of occupational safety and accounting of working time should develop in parallel.
Forecasting the situation in the near future, the Minister stated that the employment promotion measures currently in place should maintain a high level of employment, although the level of undeclared work may continue to rise.
“Existing measures, such as subsidies for employers, should definitely maintain a high level of employment. However, the registered unemployment rate may still increase as not all of the gray area is covered by the Employment Service. But we should not be afraid, because these are not people who have left the labor market, they are the ones who do not participate in the formal labor market, and we are doing everything possible to integrate them into the labor market, ”L. Kukuraitis told Eltai.
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