The model applied by Germany regarding the flexible work program in the economic crisis is a source of inspiration for the Government, but these regulations must be adapted to the realities in Romania, said on Monday the Minister of Labor and Social Protection, Violeta Alexandru, at the beginning of a debate with employers and with trade unions on flexible working hours.

“We are still due to work with you (employers and trade unions, e.n.) for the other areas that have been affected and that need support, such as the flexibility of the work schedule, given that their activity gradually returns, as other areas of the economy come back..We are receptive to these signals that you give us, so that, in the first part of the discussion, we want to discuss what the framework is, in which to intervene effectively in support of entities with an activity affected by the pandemic, which have not closed, but are affected in the sense that they have reduced their activity and reduced, of course, revenues, given that orders, flows, their business relationships could no longer be carried out on the same parameters. Here Germany has benefited from the experience of the crisis in the sense that it has thought of a regulation that is a source of inspiration. For us, too, obviously we have to adapt it to the realities in Romania,” Violeta Alexandru told the entrepreneurs, according to Agerpres.

The German model (“Kurzarbeit”) invoked by the Minister of Labor involves the Government subsidizing part of the wages for those workers whose employers have changed their working hours from normal to part-time, due to the economic crisis. Basically, the employees with the shortened work schedule would receive from the Government the equivalent value of the work for the days when they are no longer called to work by the employers.

The model of subsidizing by the Government the earnings of employees during the days when they are out of work has been repeatedly promoted in recent months by employers in Romania, especially by the Romanian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry.