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At least that’s how one can think of the story shared by Donalda Meiželytė, a member of the Vilnius City Municipal Council and the Freedom Party.
“Did you know about the new phenomenon? After receiving 4 months of downtime benefits from employers and the state and being called to work after those few months, employees leave to receive unemployment benefits for six months (or 9 months) (their previous salary is up to 9 months) and they say that Squirrel will take care of them, “wrote the politician on his personal Facebook account.
She believes that state taxpayers’ money is simply dumped into the account.
“It is unfortunate that employers, who contributed 10% of the companies’ ‘fat’ to keep employees, turned red and kept a grill.
And is it possible to call quarantine downtime when work is prohibited and pay if the person doesn’t return to work? You may be running away here before, why did the state and employers already have to pay for it?
I would suggest to said employee that he accredit himself as unemployment benefits already paid for those months in the Employment Service and that he return that 10% to the employer, because in that case he performed the functions of the Employment Fund ”, suggested Mr. Meiželytė.
She did not want to reveal to the employer that she was facing that problem.
The situation is not convincing?
Inga Ruginienė, the president of the Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation, doubted whether there really are many such employees who do not agree to return to work after downtime and prefer to be satisfied with the benefits.
“I don’t think this is a mass phenomenon. And how to control such a thing if the employee decides to resign,” said the president.
According to her, it sounds strange that employees choose unemployment benefit instead of the normal salary.
“It just came to our attention then. If an employee goes back to work and gets paid again, he definitely won’t run anywhere now with that unemployment.
There are probably underwater currents here. Especially when employers are now reluctant to cut wages. Perhaps when he returned after downtime, were the conditions offered to the employee worse than the unemployment benefit? ” I. Ruginienė considered it.
Business criticizes current order
Andrius Romanovskis, president of the Lithuanian Business Confederation, said he did not know the level of the problem, but that the current benefits system was really favorable to the employee and could harm the employer.
“In the current benefits system, the employer suffers exactly. The state does not suffer because it has endowed the man. The man got the money. But the state forced the employer not to work, paid the employee a salary with no prospect of will stay.
This was the biggest problem with the system. What did the others do? They required no commitment and contribution from the employer. This was not the case in any other state. So the simple thing is that an honest employer can still be a victim. They force him to quit his job, they force him to pay, and then he loses his employee, “said the confederation president.
It seems unacceptable to him that, during the mandatory downtime due to quarantine, the employer must not only pay the unemployed worker, but also agree not to fire him for a time. Even more authorities can verify and “cancel” it at any time.
According to Romanovsky, it is common in advanced western countries for an employer to receive a certain amount of money to cover workers’ wages in times of downtime. For example, 100 percent. offset benefits up to 1.5 times the national average salary without requiring mandatory withholding.
“It just caught our eye then. Now the second measure has been launched: wage subsidies, not downtime. The problem is that the tool doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because, if I’m not mistaken, there is a 100% refund for two months salary and then having to keep the job and get only 50 percent subsidy
No employer knows how to proceed, this tool is not used by any employer. You want to keep the person in downtime even more, “explained the interlocutor.
In his opinion, for the measure to be effective, the subsidy must be 100%. without the obligation to keep the job. At least until there is a rapid resurgence of coronavirus infections worldwide and in many European countries.
The beneficiaries are in the thousands
According to the Employment Service, on July 9. There were 5074 unemployed people who were in downtime during the quarantine and emergency period and whose companies requested financial support from employees for downtime employees. Of these, 3,106 people (61%) are entitled to unemployment insurance benefits.
“We note that in total there were more than 190,000 downtime. People for whom companies have requested financial support from the Employment Service. July 7, 216.4 thousand people registered with the Employment Service’s customer service departments. Unemployed, they represented 12.6 percent of the country’s working-age population, “the service said in a comment.
He also recalled that Sodra pays for social security unemployment benefits. The unemployment insurance benefit granted to a person when he was insured with social unemployment insurance was registered with the Employment Service; you have been granted unemployment status; The Employment Service did not propose decent work or active labor market policies; in the last 30 months have at least 12 months before the date of registration with the Employment Service. unemployment insurance record.
“We also note that benefits were not received by employees, but by their employers. Employees, in turn, received from their employers the wages due to them under the employment contract, which the employer is required to pay at least the minimum wage according to the Labor Code. The Labor Code also provides downtime and for what reason it is published, “the service explained.
The Employment Act does not impose obligations on an employee to work for an employer after receiving a downtime allowance, since it was not the employee but the employer who received the wage allowance.
Therefore, the law imposes certain obligations on the employer: after receiving downtime subsidies, employers have laid off more than 50% of the job within 3 months after the end of the salary subsidy payment. Employees who have been declared inactive due to an emergency and / or quarantine may participate in measures such as subsidized employment, job creation (adaptation) subsidies, implementation of local employment initiative projects no earlier than 12 months after the end of the wage subsidy.
This obligation does not apply to employers when employees are terminated by agreement of the parties to the employment contract on probation, at the initiative of the employee without good reason or for important reasons, at the initiative of the employer through the fault of the employee and involuntary will. , or due to the death of the employee.
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