The Federal Government decided to extend the program that allows companies to suspend employment contracts or reduce employees' wages and working hours for another two months. Created due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the program provides that the government will recompose part of the employees' income through financial aid, calculated within a percentage of what the employee would receive from unemployment insurance related to the drop in income, deposited directly into the workers' account.
The Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, had already signaled that the Executive would extend the program. With the extension, the agreements will be able to be concluded for up to 180 days. The government's expectation is that approximately 10 million jobs will be preserved throughout the national territory.
The decree published in the Federal Official Gazette provides that the employee with an intermittent employment contract formalized until April 1 of this year will be able to receive emergency assistance, in the amount of R$ 600, for an additional period of two months. The measure allows these workers to receive a total of six installments of the benefit.
The lawyer specialized in Labor Law, Janaína Fernandes, explains that the suspension of the employment contract does not imply the loss of workers' rights. Fernandes points out, however, that the suspension affects the receipt of the 13th salary.
“During the period of reduction or suspension of the employment contract, employees will be entitled to all the benefits they received during the employment contract, such as medical plan, dental plan, childcare allowance, funeral assistance, private pension. Transportation vouchers, in cases of suspension, will not exist because there is no work. In reductions, it will be granted on those days when the employee actually goes to work ”, says the lawyer.
“Those months when the employee is suspended will not be counted for the purposes of 13th salary. For example, if the employee was suspended for two months, when calculating the 13th, 10 months will be calculated and not 12 months for payment of the amount ”, he adds.
Provisional Measure
In April, the government published a provisional measure that allowed the reduction of the workday with cut of wages of up to 70% in a period of up to three months. The article, which also allowed the employment contract to be suspended for two months, aimed to try to prevent further job losses during the pandemic period. The MP was sanctioned in early July and made into law.
The Emergency Employment and Income Maintenance Program provides that the worker remains employed for the duration of the agreements and for the same period after the agreement ends. “We have here 16 million contracts signed, preserving jobs. This month's Caged was positive and the economy is starting to recover a lot thanks to this program ”, affirmed the special secretary for Social Security and Labor, Bruno Bianco.
According to the General Register of Employed and Unemployed (Caged), in the beginning of the second half of August, Brazil generated 131 thousand jobs more than layoffs.
Source: ABES Portal with Brasil61
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