CoV lockdowns: Short-time work ends after two years
politics
At the end of March, the federal government will phase out the model of short-time work with full reimbursement of costs for companies. Around 10,000 companies have used them in Salzburg alone in the two years since the beginning of the CoV crisis, according to the Salzburg Labor Market Service.
Especially in trade and tourism, many companies submit applications for short-time work for their employees. In city tourism, managers are not yet as optimistic as in the winter sports resorts, where there has long been a good booking situation.
City hotels are hoping for April
Currently, only around a fifth of all beds in the Salzburg city hotel industry are occupied, says Georg Imlauer, chairman of the hotel industry group in the Salzburg Chamber of Commerce. In almost all hotels, the staff is therefore still on short-time work: “We are good things that we will have a reasonably reasonable business again from April. Let’s hope for the Easter Festival that we can then keep our employees fully occupied.”
Jacqueline Beyer from the Salzburg Labor Market Service (AMS) says that there are still around 15,600 people on short-time work across the country. Since the lockdown began two years ago, more than 9,800 companies have registered this model to save jobs. Around 780 million euros were paid out via the AMS during this period. From today’s perspective, letting the model for short-time work created because of the CoV crisis expire is the right decision, says Beyer.
Special arrangement until the end of May
Companies that are particularly weak could continue with a normal phase of short-time work until the end of May. The maximum possible duration was extended from 24 to 26 months by the Council of Ministers – more on this in News.ORF.at (23.2.2022)