The Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is launching the "Educate for stability" project the goal of which is to preserve jobs and strengthen employee expertise. The project will be financed from the Human Resources and Employment Operational Programme and implemented through labor offices from mid-September 2012 to 31 August 2015. 400 million Czech crowns have so far been allocated for this project. The same amount is expected to be released after the evaluation of the project.
The "Educate for stability" project offers employers the option to gain money for the professional development of their staff including a contribution to the wage costs. The duration of this financial support is set at 6 months with a possible extension to 12 months. It will be possible to obtain a maximum of 31,000 Czech crowns including levies monthly per employee.
A press release of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs states that the financial contribution can only be obtained by the employer who:
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will be able to demonstrate that the number of his employees decreased by more than 20% in a year on year quarterly comparison of revenues to the number of employees. Therefore, the volume of sales per employee in the period of 3 calendar months prior to the application with the same period of the last year will be assessed.
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was forced to apply § 209 of the Labour Code on the employees designed to professional development at least one calendar month before the application. (The Section sets an obstacle to work on the employer's part when the employer cannot assign work to employees in a range of weekly working hours due to temporary restrictions on sales of its products or a reduced demand for the services provided, the so-called partial unemployment. Consequently, the amount of the wage refund granted can reach only 60% of average earnings.)
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will be able to demonstrate that he could not allocate work to his employees to the extent of more than 20% of the weekly working time. The loss of work may, however, not exceed 60% of the set weekly working time.
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At the same time, the employer must meet the conditions for the public aid under the "de minimis" or "block exemptions for education" rules and the conditions set out in the Human Resources and Employment Operational Programme.
More information including the call of the project itself will be published on www.esfcr.cz the end of August. The whole press release of the Ministry to launching the project can be found here: http://www.mpsv.cz/files/clanky/13453/TZ_280812a.pdf
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