The Government intends to mobilize the persons who haven’t been yet vaccinated by offering two days away from work. An article providing this is to be added to the Labor Code, IPN reports.

According to Minister of Health and Social Protection Marcel Spatari, the new article enables the Government to offer days off in case of vaccination by subsidizing these so that the employers do not cover the full cost of these days. Work on the practical implementation of the article is not yet done.

Marcel Spatari noted the labor legislation is not yet very clear as regards technical unemployment. When an enterprise is closed up owing to the pandemic and also due to the unfavorable economic situation, only the economic side is regulated. They are introducing technical unemployment in case of a public health emergency when the current four-year limit is not applied. Technical unemployment will be fully subsidized, not only the taxes related to such employment.

Also, a reduced working regime will be introduced into the Labor Code. In order to avoid the loss of jobs, the employers, together with the salary earners, agree a reduced working regime by distributing the reduced workload to a number of employees. The people are paid for the work they do, while the rest of the salary will be compensated with state budget funds.

Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița said all these measures are aimed at compensating the companies for eventual losses owing to the pandemic and lays the basis of the legislation concerning salary subsidization programs, reduction of working hours, subsidization of salaries during technical unemployment. The mechanisms are important for maintaining the jobs.