Wage and Insurance Subsidies for Businesses that Promote Employment

TIRANA, January 17

Albanian authorities will start the implementation of training, wage and employment subsidy program to raise employment levels among youth, inexperienced workers, and people from specific categories. The decision on this new policy measure was adopted during the latest meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, January 15th.

Therefore, the program will ease the burden rate of social/health insurance contributions and 100 percent of the minimum wage every person that is employed or trained by a company that participates in the employment program.

What does the decision specify?

Application Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible job seekers are all active unemployed jobseekers registered for not less than three months in the labor office. The needs and profile of the job seeker should meet the requirements of the job vacancy offered by the employer.
• The jobseeker participating in the program cannot be replaced.
• A job seeker may participate only once in the same program within five years.

Eligible employers must meet the following criteria:

• Registered companies for not less than six months;
• Have not filed for bankruptcy;
• Be subject to taxation and registered as an employer with the tax authorities;
• Should not have violated the labor law in the last two years before applying for the program;
• Regularly paid all compulsory health and social insurance contributions;
• Provide full-time employment for a minimum of 40 hours per week, for a monthly payment not less than the minimum wage, following the provisions of the Labor Code. Part-time employment or short-term seasonal work does not receive a subsidy;
• To not have delayed obligations to tax authorities at the time of application, or to certify that:

1. They have entered into appropriate agreements for the settlement of these obligations pay their settlement regularly;
2. Have paid the obligations, but have still not paid the fines;
3. Have paid the liabilities or provided bank guarantees for the full amount of the liability, following Article 107 of the law On Tax Procedures in the Republic of Albania, and are in the process of administrative appeal and litigation with tax authorities.

The job funded by this program must come as a result of the increased labor force in the employer activity;
The employers should not have reduced staff within the past four months.

Employers have the right to apply to more than one program for several job seekers not higher than 20 percent of the current workforce, but not more than 21participants. Employers with less than five employees may apply for a maximum of two participants.

Programs, beneficiaries, and support

The employment program shall contain the following elements:

The employment program is for one year and the profile and needs of the job seeker must meet the open vacancy requirements.
The salary is specified in the employment contract, following the relevant position and level of wages in the market;

Unemployed job seekers with the right to benefit from the programs fall into the following categories:

• Young people under the age of 29
• Long-term unemployed job seekers;
• Job seekers over the age of45
• Unskilled unemployed jobseekers
• Unemployed job seekers returning from immigration no longer than two years
• Jobseekers on welfare who are expected to exit the scheme in the relevant year and the following year;
• Jobseekers on welfare for more than three months;
• People with disabilities;
• Victims of trafficking, gender-based violence, and victims of domestic violence;
• Job seekers from the Roma and Egyptian communities;
• Persons who have completed vocational training or job training program and are still unemployed, six months from the training.

The program subsidizes the following costs:

• Compulsory social and health contributions (part of employer contribution), calculated based on the national minimum wage, offered throughout employment, remunerated each month.
• Funding of salary in the amount of 100 percent of the national minimum wage, determined by the legislation in force:

1. for four months, for all program participants, remunerated in the fifth and sixth months of the contract, and the eleventh and twelfth months of the contract;
2. for six months, for participants that are victims of trafficking, domestic violence or victims of gender-based violence, Roma and Egyptian community members, remunerated in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, the eleventh, and twelfth months of the contract;
3. for twelve months for persons with disabilities, compensated each month.

The training program comprises the following elements:

• The job training program aims at training job seekers according to the job profile needs required by job seekers and to adapt to the needs of the employer;
• The duration of the subsidy offered by this program shall be for four months for all occupations;
• The individual training plan is drafted by the employer and approved by the relevant structures of the institution responsible for employment and skills;
• Each employer shall designate at least one trainer for each group of beneficiaries, from one to seven beneficiaries included in the program;
• The beneficiary of this program is the unemployed and unskilled jobseeker in the needed job

The program subsidizes the following costs:

• Compulsory social and health contributions (part of employer contributions), calculated based on the national minimum wage, offered throughout training, remunerated each month;
• Financing the salary in the amount of 100 percent of the national minimum wage determined by the legislation in force, remunerated each month;
• Mandatory social and health contributions (part of employer contributions) for the next eight months, calculated based on the national minimum wage, for cases when the trained job seeker is employed for at least eight months with the employee
• Payment to the mentor in the amount of Lek 2,000 for each beneficiary or participants involved by this employer.

The professional internship program comprises the following elements:

The internship program aims to guarantee a rapid transition to the labor market, in the same field or similar field that the graduate has studied, for six months;
Beneficiaries of this program are all unemployed job seekers who are newly graduated, up to the last 24 months after graduation, who are registered as unemployed jobseekers;

The program subsidizes the following costs:

• Contributions to occupational accident insurance;
• Salary financing in the amount 50 percent of the national minimum wage, determined by the legislation in force, remunerated each month.

In addition to subsidizing the costs covered by these programs, the programs will cover the following costs for these categories: orphan beneficiaries, single parents with children under 6, parents of children with disabilities, victims and potential victims of trafficking, victims of domestic or gender-based violence, and people on welfare:

• Bonus for transport costs shall be covered for all the above categories, having a residence of more than two km from the workplace, in the amount of Lek 1,600 per month;
• Monthly kindergarten bonus of Lek 3,000 for single parents with one child under 6
• Up to Lek 200,000 for employers that make the workplace/office disability-friendly.

Source: Prime Minister’s Office