Ms. Charalambous said that the new plan will be sent to the social partners to give suggestions and comments by the end of the week and then will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval, while announcing the modification of the tender documents for public works and the exclusion from the claim of a company / bidder who has been convicted of illegal, undeclared work or of violating other laws.
He also announced the establishment of a special technical committee headed by the Director General of the Ministry and the participation of the social partners, which will discuss the additional proposals that have been submitted and in terms of mandate no later than one and a half months to codify these suggestions.
In a statement, following a meeting at the Ministry of Labor of the National Employment Committee with the participation of social partners, during which there was an exchange of views on the situation in the labor market, Ms. Charalambous said that in addition to assessing the labor market situation, The Ministry of Labor also submitted the plans for the new plan it is promoting as well as additional measures aimed at shielding the labor market of Cyprus.
Regarding the new plan, Ms. Charalambous said that she informed the social partners that "it is a plan with a budget of eight million euros for 2012, which targets young unemployed people up to 29 years old with an unemployment period of three to six months and long-term unemployed with an unemployment period of more than seven months ”.
He stated that the new plan will be in the form of the previous plans of the Ministry of Labor, "according to which a percentage of the salary cost is covered from 50-65%, while there will be a differentiation (upwards) of the amount of salary cost coverage. if the unemployed person is placed in a construction company ”.
He noted that the rate of coverage of the wage costs of an unemployed person will amount to 60% for construction and 50% for other sectors.
This is done, he continued, because we want to give more support and coverage of wage costs to companies in the construction sector.
"Our goal is to be a very flexible plan so that the applications of the business and the unemployed can be approved quickly and the subsidy can start as soon as possible", said Ms. Charalambous, adding that "we will come up with small announcements to we are given the opportunity to know how much we need in each announcement of the plan in order to have a more immediate result in terms of placing the unemployed in jobs ".
He added that the commitment of the Ministry of Labor is that "in the coming days he will send the plan to the social partners to give us some suggestions that they might want to submit to the parameters of the plan and after this consultation we will proceed to the Council of Ministers with a specific proposal." .
Regarding the additional measures taken by the Ministry of Labor, Ms. Charalambous said that they aim "at shielding the potential of the registered unemployed to be absorbed by jobs that are created, especially in public works".
He added that the Public Procurement Authority will proceed, "after an agreement we have reached, to modify the tender documents for public works, introducing three regulations".
According to Ms. Charalambous, the first regulation, which has already been announced, concerns those who undertake public works and need additional staff to meet these needs, to resort to public employment services to meet these needs.
He also stated that "the provision that currently exists in the model contract for public construction projects under which the successful contractor and subcontractors must apply terms of employment under the agreed collective agreement will be extended to cover other areas of projects of the public ”.
He added that "another provision will be added which will exclude from the works of the public enterprise / bidder who has been convicted for illegal undeclared work or for violation of other laws, including the decree on the minimum wage".
He added that he had informed the social partners that "the Human Resources Development Authority, within the framework of its own plans, has already decided to give priority to the long-term unemployed both in terms of access to training programs and in terms of the Authority's plans concerning the placement of the unemployed for training and employment in companies ”.
He noted that the Authority manages 20 million euros in the framework of the plans it implements and concern, inter alia, training for existing employees, training and retraining of the unemployed, co-financed projects concerning special groups (inactive female workforce, young people) and training plans and placement of young graduates and the unemployed in business.
He also said that he has discussed with the Human Resources Development Authority "and we are waiting for her suggestions in order to increase the offered training programs we have for the unemployed in order to increase the number of unemployed people who benefit from these programs".
The Minister of Labor also said that in the Employment Committee "because many and useful suggestions for programs have been submitted, it has been agreed to set up a special technical committee headed by the Director General of the Ministry and with the participation of the social partners, which will discuss the additional suggestions submitted in terms of mandate no later than one and a half months to codify these suggestions to the Ministry of Labor "
Source: SigmaLive