If employment conditions worsen nationwide going forward, business owners experiencing management difficulties will be able to receive more employment retention subsidies from the government. Previously, they could receive additional subsidies only when conditions deteriorated in specific regions or industries, but this requirement has been eased.
The employment retention subsidy is a system that supports a portion of leave or furlough allowances when business owners facing management difficulties do not lay off workers and maintain employment through leave or furlough.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said on Jan. 5 it will give advance notice of legislation for a draft amendment to the Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Rules of the Employment Insurance Act.
Beyond expanding the criteria for subsidies, the ministry also unified the conditions for workers on leave or furlough who are eligible to receive subsidies. Under the current system, for paid employment retention measures, leave requires a reduction of more than 20% in the total monthly working hours of all insured persons, while furlough requires each insured person to be exempted from work for at least one month. This will be unified so that both leave and furlough require a reduction of at least 20% of each insured person's prescribed monthly working hours.
The application deadline for the subsidy was within 1 month from the last day of the month in which the employment retention measure was implemented, but going forward the deadline will be within 3 months. This step aims to reduce cases where, when there are many eligible persons for employment retention measures, support is missed due to missing the deadline while preparing documents.
The employment retention subsidy is paid to business owners and others for whom employment adjustment for employees, such as leave or furlough, is unavoidable due to a drop of more than 15% in sales compared with the average of the previous 6 months. The support limit is 68,100 won per insured person per day, and it is provided for up to 180 days a year.