The Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has created the project "Education for Stability" to support the maintenance of jobs for those employers who, due to the stagnation of the Czech economy, are temporarily unable to assign work to employees within the agreed range. In times when no work can be allocated to such employees, they shall be given the opportunity to attend training sessions or other education development sessions, which will be partially funded by the state.
Companies may participate in the program regardless of their field of business. In order to qualify for the subsidy, employers must be temporarily failing to assign work to employees for 20-60% of the employee's working hours (i.e. usually 1 – 3 days per week). This failure must be due to negative economic developments or because of temporary restrictions on sales or reduction in the demand for their services. In addition, the employers must be willing to use the time for the training and professional development of their employees.
The project will enable employers to obtain a financial contribution for such education costs as well as a contributions to the salary compensation paid to employees for the time spent studying. To obtain the contribution, the employer needs to process a request (which can be downloaded from the website of the Ministry), including mandatory attachments, and deliver it to the competent Czech Labour Office in the place of work of the affected employees. The relevant Labour Office will assess the submissions and decide which applicants may receive the aid. As well as giving details on the contemplated educational activities, a number of formalities must also be fulfilled by the applicants. This includes the submission of an acknowledgment of indebtedness from the tax office, customs office, the Czech Social Security Administration and the applicants' employees' health insurance companies.
The total amount that may be drawn by an employer is CZK 500,000 (approx. EUR 20,000) per month, on average, during the whole period of state aid. The maximum amount of subsidy which may be claimed by an employer for an individual full-time employee is CZK 31,000 (approx. EUR 1,250) per month.
The project "Education for Stability" has only been launched recently and will be implemented from September 17, 2012 until August 31, 2015.
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
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The original publication date for this article was 17/09/2012.
