Parliament approves an amendment to the Employment Services Act. Its aim is to increase people’s interest in travelling for work or to simplify the conditions for employing people from third countries. The amendment proposes an increase in several allowances to support labour mobility, as well as the introduction of a new relocation allowance.
Increase in existing allowances
The commuting allowance will rise from €135 to €200. Until now, the mobility allowance has been a maximum of €250 – now it will be a maximum of €400 for a single person and €600 for a married couple. In addition to the change in the amount of the allowances, the distance condition is also changed – from 70 km to 50 km. The definition of the mode of transport to work will also undergo a significant change – until now, contributions could only be used for transport by public transport. The allowances will now be available regardless of the mode of transport.
New job relocation allowance
The amendment introduces a completely new relocation allowance. The maximum amount will be €4,000, €6,000 in the case of a married couple. As a condition for the new allowance, beneficiaries will have to prove the costs incurred.
Staff from third countries
The amendment will also simplify the conditions for employing people from third countries. They took this step because of a shortage of skilled labour. The new conditions will only apply to districts with unemployment below 5% and can only be applied by companies that have not violated the ban on illegal employment in the last two years.
The Tripartite Commission will draw up a list of occupations where shortages persist. “In order to speed up the process of issuing single permits in general, it is proposed to shorten the period for reporting vacancies for the purpose of assessing the situation on the labour market from 30 to 20 calendar days,” said MP Petrák from Smer-SD. The number of people so employed by a given employer may be no more than 30% of the total number of employees. According to the amendment, employees from third countries should also be provided with suitable accommodation.
The amendment will also create a quorum for calculating the proportion of employees from third countries. “The quorum shall consist exclusively of internal employees working at least half-time, so that the employer cannot artificially increase the quorum, e.g. by temporarily assigned workers or employees formally employed on an hourly basis, or employees on agreements for work performed outside the employment relationship,” the proposal states. This means that if an employer employs more than 30% of its total workforce as third-country nationals and wishes to recruit more, it will not be able to use the proposed simplified procedure (even if these are jobs with labour shortages). This measure is intended to prevent the exploitation of the shortage of skilled labour for social dumping.
