UK to assume 80% of wages
This measure, which will last four months, seeks to prevent the layoffs from starting to become massive in the region
The Government of the United Kingdom will be responsible for four more months, until the end of next October, to pay 80% of the wages of workers affected by job suspensions due to the coronavirus pandemic, up to a maximum of 2,500 pounds, in order to avoid massive layoffs in the country.
The Minister of Finance and Head of Finance of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, explained in the British Parliament the extension for a period of four months of the ‘Labor Retention Program’, although he announced that, from next August, It will ask companies to share in part the government’s effort through the gradual and part-time return of currently suspended employees.
“Until the end of July there will be no changes of any kind, but between August and October, the plan will continue for all sectors and regions of the United Kingdom with greater flexibility in order to support the transition back to work”, Sunak said.
In this sense, the head of the United Kingdom Treasury pointed out that companies that have joined this program will be able to resort to part-time employees currently suspended, thus sharing with the Government the payment of the wages of these workers. Details of the plan will be released in late May, he added.
An estimated 7.5 million UK employees, a quarter of the total, are currently benefiting from this program, launched by the British Government last March.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, estimates that the cost of the program through October will be around £ 100bn.
K. Tovar
Source: dpa
