[ingliz]

Mission:

Social cohesion, measured with employment and unemployment rates

Economic cohesion, measured with the GNP per capita index

Objectives:

Increase in employment

Reduction of unemployment

Improvement of the quality of human capital

1.1 Self Employment

Support for people intending to set up a small business, a cooperative, or a social cooperative

i. Individual and group consultancy and training courses

ii. Development grants

iii. Bridge support for between 6-12 months including assistance combining consultancy with effective subsidy absorption

iv. Promotional and information campaigns

1.2 Setting up and developing micro-enterprises in rural areas under the "Rural Development Programme 2009-2015"

Objectives:

Employment growth in rural areas...

A Bill, but it's very long and I am sure you don't want to wade through 94 pages of 'legalese" so, in order to save both your time and mine, I will post a suitably impenetrable abstract, the main proposals in plain English, and a short note on US money and EU technical assistance.

Employment Act 2009 (Abstract)

An Act regarding the promotion of employment and labour market institutions. The new legislation deals with the state’s duties with respect to fostering employment, assuaging the impact of unemployment and 'activating' unemployed people. An important role in the achieving these objectives is envisaged for the social partners.

The new Act supplants a 1994 Act regarding employment and counteracting unemployment and a 2001 Act on facilitating the employment of school leavers. Furthermore, the provisions of the previous Act governing disbursement of pre-retirement benefits will be replaced by a separate statute dealing with these matters

The legislative Act regarding promotion of employment and labour market institutions is one of the cornerstones of a legislative package (known as the 'Honi plan') prepared by HoniSoit, now the Prime Minister who was charged with economic and labour affairs in the now-disbanded "Potemkin" cabinet. A draft was ready, but controversy surrounding the Honi plan as a whole meant that its implementation was delayed until now. The new Act is a prerequisite for the smooth incorporation of PoFo's disparate employment legislation into a seamless network of employment services.

The Act comes into force in stages.

Overview of new regulations

The Act regarding promotion of employment and labour market institutions provides that the state’s labour market policies are based on a 'domestic plan of pro-employment activities' drawn up by the cabinet with due heed to the need for an employment strategy.

The new Act introduces several concepts previously unknown in PoFo law. The first of these is the definition of a catalogue of employment service entities, public as well as private:

•the public employment services - ie the employment offices at county and regional level;
•the 'volunteer labour corps'- an entity financed out of the state budget that works towards the objective of enabling young people to continue their education and to gain vocational skills;
•employment agencies - a category which includes labour placement agencies, personnel consultancies and temporary staffing agencies;
•training institutions - commercial entities that train unemployed people;
•social dialogue institutions; and
•local partnership institutions (see below).

The Act defines the basic types of labour market services, namely:

•labour market intermediation/placement;
•career counselling and information;
•assistance with active job-seeking; and
•organisation of training.

As compared with the old regulations governing labour market-related matters, the new Act places more emphasis on 'activation' than on welfare. It enshrines a dramatic overhaul of the employment services’ operating model. These institutions have previously acted as a dispenser of unemployment benefits, but now their task is to aid the jobless in actively looking for work. A series of measures incorporated in the Act is addressed specifically to those groups within the population who are most threatened by unemployment: the youngest (aged below 25) and the oldest (over 50) participants in the labour market; long-term unemployed people (those without work for two years or more); unskilled people; lone parents of children aged up to seven; and people with disabilities. For example, for people aged 50 or more, time spent receiving unemployment benefit will be credited towards the combined length of employment necessary to qualify for a retirement benefit. However, the Act concentrates more on activation measures. The public authorities may: subsidise - for a period of up to 12 months - commuting and accommodation costs insofar as they relate to taking up paid employment or an internship/apprenticeship; subsidise the purchase of equipment needed for work/business activity; and reimburse to employers that recruit unemployed people the social insurance contributions paid in relation to these workers.

The new Act provides a legal basis for the establishment by employers of self-financed training funds, expenditure from which can qualify for partial reimbursement from the public authorities. Also, where an employee is sent on training leave (another new concept introduced by the Act) of at least 22 days’ duration, an unemployed person assigned by the labour office can be recruited temporarily to fill the absent worker's job (on the basis of a 'contract for substitution'), and the cost of training and remunerating this unemployed person may be partly reimbursed from the Labour Fund .

The Act also provides for 'monitored redundancy programmes', which are mandatory for employers employing at least 100 people and contemplating collective redundancies. Under such a programme, the employer collaborates with the labour office to provide the redundant employees with support in the area of training, career counselling and employment intermediation, and to assist them with active job-hunting.

The Act includes many provisions devised to motivate unemployed people to look for jobs actively. One of these instruments is the possibility for an unemployed person who takes up a part-time job paying less than the minimum monthly wage to continue drawing a portion of his or her unemployment benefit. As regards unemployment benefits themselves , the maximum period over which they can be paid out has been extended; while, nominally, such benefits will still be collected over a basic period of 6 months, this limit applies only to areas where the unemployment rate is not more than 125% of the national average. In practical terms, this means that some unemployed people would be entitled to claim benefit for up to 3 months more than the period allowed under the old rules . This will translate into a lengthening of the unemployment benefit eligibility period in almost 150 counties.

An important change made by the new law is the elaboration of rules governing the registration of employment agencies, and also the institution of a duty whereby people engaging in professional labour market intermediation and advice must obtain a licence issued by the minister charged with labour affairs.

Social partners' role in employment promotion

The role and the duties of the social partners in their capacity as a legislatively designated 'institution' of the labour market, and also the relevance of social dialogue for employment promotion, regarding promotion of employment and labour market institutions.

The underlying premise of the Act is that labour market policies are pursued by the government in cooperation with the social partners; the platforms for such cooperation are to be presented in the National Employment Council and in the regional employment councils, which have the status of review and advisory bodies. The trade unions and the employers' associations join the public employment services in the provision of services. Cooperation between the public authorities and the social partners with respect to fostering employment can also assume the form of initiatives at the county and regional levels. Local authorities may also commission the social partners (as they may all other labour market institutions other than the labour offices) to perform tasks relating to employment promotion and to vocational activation of unemployed people. Duly empowered entities may also approach the authorities with initiatives of their own. Work may be commissioned by way of an open bidding procedure; in their execution of the projects, selected entities may receive public funding in the form of earmarked grants.

Main points in plain English

We will open "one stop" integrated government 'advice, training, and employment' agencies.

We will offer guaranteed vocational training to the young unemployed.

We will offer guaranteed retraining to the long term unemployed.

We will offer support for people intending to set up a small business, a cooperative, or a social cooperative

We will develop micro-enterprises in rural areas

We will offer government employment to the disabled and offer to partially subsidise, waive payroll taxes etc, private employers who do the same.

We will partially subsidise childcare facilities in factories.

The unemployed over 50 will be credited the "stamp"

We will partially subsidise apprenticeships

We will make up the wages of the unemployed who take on part time work so that it is more than the dole, for as long as they are eligible for benefit, and subsidise their commuting expenses and purchase of work related necessaries.

Allow the unemployed to take on short term contracts without them losing benefits by having to wait for a period after the contract ends before they are eligible to claim benefit again.

Partially subsidise employers' training expenses who offer ongoing vocational training programmes for their employees

Make employers with over 100 employees pay for the retraining of redundant workers.

Extend benefit eligibility in areas of high unemployment

License private training and employment agencies

Community work schemes will be subsidised after being vetted by a National Employment Council made up of representatives from both the unions and employers

Training schemes to be approved by the NEC before getting subsidies

Government training schemes to be contracted out to private entities.

A short note

In principle, our human development programme is eligible for US Foreign Aid grants earmarked during the Ryan era plus additional assistance under the "countries in transition to democracy" programme financed by the US Economic Support Fund. And there is also some EU Foreign Aid for the IT needed to implement an integrated national "advice, training, and employment" service. The EU will also be providing other technical assistance in the form of EURES specialists to advise us on setting up our employment services.

[Zagadka]

Do you have anything in your bill for the unemployable?

[Oxymoron]

Can we include funding for Tech , apprentice and Skill institutes for people who graduate HS but dont want to go to college?

[Zyx]

Gargh, that language!

What are the costs of this. How many would you expect to participate in this program? 5% of the population? How much is the cost per person?

[Zagadka]

I would prefer to see the guaranteed vocational training attached to regular primary/secondary education- graduate from high school, have either 2 years of vocational training or 2 free years of college (for the fields that need it - enough to get an associate's degree, anyway).

[MistyTiger]

Do you have anything in your bill for the unemployable?

You mean like handicapped and disabled veterans? Yeah, good question.

Does this bill also have anything like COBRA or unemployment benefits for those without a job for say, at least 2 months?

[Zyx]

Guys, you need to propose specific bills, maybe even rewrite the bill.

Granted, it's in legalese so . . . but still, propose specific amendments. It's not Q&A, you guys are MPs. You've as much power as ingliz on this bill.

I mean, don't 'rewrite' but propose solid clauses and argue their merit. Propose solid replacements, argue why better. etc.

[ingliz]

Do you have anything in your bill for the unemployable?

No, it's a "promotion of employment" bill, it's not a panacea. The severely disabled will be looked after in a separate statute, the disabled capable of work are catered for in this bill.

Can we include funding for Tech , apprentice and Skill institutes for people who graduate HS but dont want to go to college?

Yes, but I would like to see it combined with work placement

Does this bill also have anything like COBRA or unemployment benefits for those without a job for say, at least 2 months?

COBRA; No, we have a free National Health Service: Unemployment benefits; Yes.

Unemployment benefit is payable after 6 weeks for a period of up to 6 months and 9 months if you are in an area of high unemployment (over 125% of national average). But once the schemes are in place most people will not be claiming as either they will be training, retraining, working in the community, or setting up on their own and I hope our national job placement service will get a few of them a proper job.

The small businesses start up scheme is expected to create around 6,000 jobs.

The government sponsored rural micro-enterprises should employ approximately 14,000 directly and the same again indirectly in agri-tourism, farm and forestry services, smallholdings, retail, traditional crafts etc. These are not "make work" companies, they will be expected to make a profit or at worst break even.

The job training and placement scheme should help fill the 90,000 jobs that float around because it isn't worth training a worker to fill a possibly short term or seasonal vacancy. We hope that trained personnel will be worth keeping so a full time position is created.

We hope to double the number of apprenticeships from 35,000 to 70,000

[Thunderhawk]

training institutions - commercial entities that train unemployed people;

Would these be seperate from colleges, the same, or just a classification any insitution/workplace can aquire to recieve funding?

The Act also provides for 'monitored redundancy programmes', which are mandatory for employers employing at least 100 people and contemplating collective redundancies. Under such a programme, the employer collaborates with the labour office to provide the redundant employees with support in the area of training, career counselling and employment intermediation, and to assist them with active job-hunting.

To what degree?
Is the employer expected to fully fund the programmes?
Define redundant employee

We will make up the wages of the unemployed who take on part time work so that it is more than the dole, for as long as they are eligible for benefit, and subsidise their commuting expenses and purchase of work related necessaries.

At what rate? parity - for every dollar you earn you recieve one less from the dole? Or something else?