On 18 July during a Government cabinet meeting the grand coalition adopted a draft law by Work and Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), which seeks to offer subsidized job support and take the almost 150,000 out of long-term unemployment. Public and private companies that hire those listed as unemployed for 7 years will be eligible for salary subsidies calculated on the basis of the minimum legal wage for a period of 5 years. For the first two years of employment the former unemployed worker’s salary will be fully paid for by the State. Thereafter the percentage paid will decrease by 10% per year. Another provision is also in line for those who have been listed as unemployed for two years. Hubertus Heil thus intends to give the long-term unemployed prospects for the future. However the future legislation, the cost of which is estimated at roughly €4 billion has been criticized by both employers’ bodies and trade unions alike. The new legislation is expected to come into force on 01 January 2019.
A longer-term provision. During the presentation by the Work and Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) of the draft legislation addressing ‘participation opportunities’ for the long term unemployed (Teilhabechancengesetz), the Minister recalled that in site of the healthy state of the country’s employment market, Germany is still having to tackle an intractable hard core of long term unemployment. In Germany about 2 million are out of work and 800,000 of these are long-term unemployed. By
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