The measures decided at today's extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers concern the strengthening of the protection network of workers and vulnerable groups of the population and are the following:
1. Issuance of "Special Permit" to Parents working in the private sector, for the Care of Children up to 15 years of age due to the suspension of attendance in schools, public and private, in nurseries and daycare centers.
For the "special leave", which, at this stage, may last up to 4 weeks at this stage, and which does not include holidays, an allowance will be granted as follows:
For a parent with a salary of up to € 2.500: for the first € 1.000 of the parent's salary a "special leave" allowance of 60% of the salary will be paid and for the next € 1.000 of his salary, a bonus of 40% will be paid. It is noted that in cases of single-parent families, the ratio for payment of the allowance differs to 70% and 50% respectively.
The leave will be granted to one of the two parents and if one parent receives the said leave, the other can not take the corresponding leave at the same time. Also, if one parent works / receives unemployment benefit / participates in a Job Suspension Plan and the other does not, the working parent is not entitled to it, unless the non-working parent has contracted the virus himself / herself or is being treated or is disabled or is a person who is under mandatory restraint.
The parental leave in question will be granted if the nature of their work does not allow them to telework or work from home or work part-time and if there is no in-house assistance. This does not include grandparents. The leave will be granted in consultation with the employer, upon request.
This leave applies to parents of persons with disabilities and there is no age limit here, as mentioned above in the 15th year of age, meaning that no care allowance is granted to such persons.
The period of the special leave will be considered a period of similar insurance. This means that all their rights will be as if they were employees.
For the public sector, employees who are judged by their respective Ministers to come to work but need to stay in their home to care for their children should, in consultation with their Supervisor, make arrangements for replacement. their.
2. Suspension Plan.
In all the companies that have been decided today to suspend their operations and in those companies that will continue their operation and will have a reduction in turnover of more than 25%, a special Business Suspension Plan is implemented, in order to avoid layoffs and at the same time Affected employees will receive unemployment benefits for as long as the company is suspended. As you know the unemployment benefit is about 60% of the salary.
3. Small Business Support Plan, amounting to € 10m, for companies that employ up to 5 people, provided that they retain their employees at work and have suffered a reduction in turnover of more than 25%. The Plan provides for a subsidy of 70% of the salary costs of employees. The conditions and the safeguards of the Plan will be announced in the announcement.
4. Remuneration plan for employees in the Afternoon Programs of the Ministry of Education:
Payment of an allowance, which will be equal to the full earnings they have received for so long, to about 5000 people employed in the afternoon and evening Programs of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, such as Music Schools, Sports Schools, State Training Institutes, , optional All-Day Schools, Afternoon and Evening Programs of Technical Schools and the Program "School and Social Integration Actions", and other service purchase programs of the Ministry of Education.
5. Payment of "sickness allowance" on average € 800 per month in:
i. Employees who have particular health problems and are on the List to be published by the Ministry of Health, who must be absent from work for the purpose of protecting their health and not worsening it. Prerequisite for the presentation of a certificate by their personal doctor.
ii. Cases of compulsory absence from work for employees by instruction or order of the Authorities (Category 1 [mandatory restraint under medical supervision (quarantine)] and Category 2 [self-restraint under telephone surveillance]), provided that the restricted employees hold a certificate issued by the Ministry of Health.
iii. Persons over the age of 63 up to the age of 65 who do not receive a statutory pension, the old-age pension as it was called, and who continue to work and who fall into Categories 1 and 2 of the Ministry of Health, hold a certificate issued by the Ministry of Health.
iv. For the purpose of supporting the self-employed, the sickness benefit will be paid in exactly the same way as for the employees, ie from the fourth day, instead of the ninth as it is today.
6. Extension of the time period for submitting objections to social insurance for the self-employed for one month until April 30, 2020.
7. Creation of mobile workshops to serve the elderly and vulnerable people, so that they can get food, medicine that they need in case they are isolated and need the support of the state.
Payment of benefits for these benefits will be made through simplified and concise procedures. That is, the procedures that apply to date will not be applied, but will be faster, simpler, so that the benefits reach the beneficiaries as soon as possible.