Small businesses don’t find ways to get people to work – they want profits to decline

Nijolė Čeičienė, representative of the Council of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of Lithuania, says that there is a lack of a mechanism forcing people to work.

“The benefits are not small, the pay period is quite long and there is no mechanism to force a person to go to work. The worst thing is that at present the business cannot function normally and recover after quarantine, ”N. Čeičienė said at the council meeting.

“We want profits to go down, we need to find a mechanism and people have to go to work,” he said.

According to N. Čeičienė, people who choose to register with the Employment Service instead of working, often work illegally. Business representatives also said that some of the downtime employees decide not to return to work but to sign up for the service.

At the time, Deputy Minister of Social Security and Labor Vytautas Šilinskas noted that the unemployment rate was declining rapidly and the number of employees had returned to the pre-pandemic level.

“There are many employees today, according to Sodra, we have almost 1.3 million. We have a working population and, overall, a working-age population of 1.7 million. We see 400 thousand. People who are of working age but not they work, clearly there are people with disabilities and students, “said the vice minister.

He did not agree that people prefer benefits over unemployment. According to V. Šilinskas, this is usually due to harmful habits and lack of social skills, some do not have the opportunity to go to work, they have nowhere to leave their children or supervised parents and the grades do not match.

“We set ourselves the goal that people do not become unemployed, but go to services and provide more services to the Employment Service. There must be investments, not costs, because unemployment is very expensive, so by measuring and investing in employment support, we can generate many benefits for the economy ”, said V. Šilinskas.

“I agree that there is a shortage of people, but it is necessary to attract those citizens who do not work, for example, only about 30 percent. disabled work. It could really work harder though, ”he added.

The head of the Employment Service Inga Balnanosienė emphasized that it is necessary to think about employee retraining and sustainable jobs, so that a person does not want to leave after a month.

“If a person says that I am not working because it is wrong, let’s listen to that person why he is not working. Because we are talking about forced labor with our neighbors, maybe we will stop turning to that side, we really are a much more solid state, let’s focus, let’s think about small groups, municipalities, with older people, let’s take good practices and solve the issue step by step “I said at the meeting. Balnanosienė.

According to her, companies should be more actively involved in the employee retraining process, accepting people for internships and apprenticeships. He also agreed that there are professions that are understaffed, but people do not go to work there.

“There is a shortage of nurses, but they do not go to work because they are afraid, they do not want to be vaccinated, especially the elderly, we currently have offers for nurses all over Lithuania. Builders – exactly the same paradox, unskilled labor, unskilled registration. We no longer need them in construction, we have many registered and working in the construction sector, who have lost their qualifications, but instead of recycling, we bring nationals from third countries, ”said the head of the Employment Service.

“Agriculture, small businesses, they register a lot of offers. People leave and send the message that they are not going to work, because they work according to service receipts, “he added.

Inga Ruginienė, president of the trade union confederation, believes that higher wages and better working conditions would help companies find employees.

“You could find employees if you started talking about a higher salary. Increasing wages, improving working conditions, perhaps reconciling work and rest regimes, the concept of reconciliation of family and work, which, unfortunately, we still lack in the workplace, “said a union representative at the meeting.

He also noted that the forces of the Employment Service should be increased.

At that time, the Advisor to the President, Irena Segalovičienė, stated that the availability and quality of the labor market services of the Employment Service and their financing should be increased, as well as the strengthening of social dialogue. He also noted that the unemployment or poverty trap should be taken into account when considering improving unemployment and social benefits.

“They really exist in certain types of families, especially with a minimum wage. This can be taken into account when thinking about raising the minimum wage and the like, but raising the minimum wage is also an effective means of reducing the unemployment trap. However, I do not want to say that Lithuania is a community of benefits, certainly not, ”said the President’s Advisor.