site.btaUnions and Employers Unanimously Approve Government-Proposed Extension to 60/40 Job Retention Scheme

Sofia, October 5 (BTA) - The National Council for Tripartite
Cooperation held an extraordinary online meeting on Monday,
convened by Deputy Prime Minister and Tourism Minister Mariyana
Nikolova, the government press service reported.

The trade unions and the employer organizations represented at
the meeting unanimously supported a government proposal to amend
 and supplement the ordinance on the 60/40 job retention scheme.
 They made some remarks and recommended certain provisions to be
 particularized.

The amendments and supplements envisage that: the timeframe for
implementing the 60/40 job retention scheme will be extended
until December 31, 2020; the relaxed conditions for the hotels
and restaurants sector will also apply to "other land passenger
transport," according to the official classification of economic
 activities; the method for determining job retention funding
will involve calculating the average daily contributory income;
an employer who has received job retention funding will be
required to pay wages to his employees that are no less than the
 amount of the contributory income for August; the condition
that eligible beneficiaries of 60/40 aid should have lost at
least 20 per cent of their revenues will be differentiated to
distinguish between employers registered before or after
September 2019; and a procedure will be worked out for
collecting payments under statements of deficiency in accounts
as per Article 110 of the Social Insurance Code.

The changes to the ordinance will cost 750 million leva in
additional expenses, which will be financed from the
unemployment bill of the public social insurance scheme. The
extension of the 60/40 job retention scheme will make it
possible to retain another 200,000 jobs.

The changes will become effective on October 1. Job retention
funding will be provided after due notification from the
European Commission. NV/VE