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Deloitte: Kurzarbeit measure is beneficial for employer and employees and for economy as well
The implementation of Kurzarbeit model in Romania is beneficial for employee and employer and for the economy, but since no level is provided to access these payments could have negative effects, Deloitte consultants say. The government has recently approved the emergency order on the
implementation of the German model Kurzarbeit in Romania, which supposes subsidies from the state for reduced work hours. The model offers employers whose activity was affected by Covid 19 pandemic the possibility to reduce the employees' work time so that they should not resort to firing staff, without affecting their incomes too much.
In the consultant' opinion, it remains to be seen whether the application procedure which includes the ways of receiving the money from the state budget and the needed documents, will bring clarifications on ways of granting these facilities.
In Romania, in the variant adopted by the government, employers can reduce, in certain conditions, the employees' work time and salaries by 50% to the most, for a period of at least 5 working days. As support measure, the state pays the employer 75% of the difference between basic gross salary and the basic salary for days worked. The procedure was established by government decision.
To benefit for this support, an employer has to fulfill two conditions: to be able to apply the measure for at least 10% of the total number of employees and to have a lower business figure than in the month prior to applying the measure by at least 10% of the same month of 2019.
Certain restrictions are applied during the application of the facility. The employees cannot work outside the established reduced work time and employers cannot fire employees collectively. At the same time companies must delay the payment of bonuses for the management
structure while applying Kurzarbeit.
“At present this model is implemented in several EU countries. Germany applies the program on the model of the 2009 economic crisis, the state covering up to 80% of the employees' net payment
reduced following the lower working time, including social contributions due by employers,” Deloitte shows.
This financial support model was also implemented in Austria (Corona- Kurzarbeit) and supposes that employees receive 90% of net salary despite the reduction of work time, employers supporting the pay for work time and the state paying the difference. France and Slovenia have also implemented support measures to subsidize reduced work time.