Komunikim- Shtypi

New Law of Promotion of Employment

The new Law no. 15/2019 on Promotion of Employment ("the Law") enters into force on 18 April 2019. It repeals the previous Law no. 7995 on Promotion of Employment dated 20 September 1995.

The Law governs the functioning and organization of the public employment service system, as well as the responsible bodies. In addition, it introduces new rights and obligations for employers and abolishes previous mandatory requirements such as the obligation to notify about vacancies, to report separately vacancies for persons with disabilities, and to report the number of employees and main activities on a quarterly basis.

Employers will need to notify the labor office within 20 calendar days from the court's decision to initiate bankruptcy proceedings if the bankruptcy procedures are initiated by the employer.

When benefiting from public funds, employers are obliged to hire a certain number of unemployed jobseekers registered with the regional labor authorities. A decision of the Council of Ministers is expected to determine the rules and procedures for fulfillment of this obligation.

Employers must hire one person with disabilities for the first 25 employees of the entity and one additional person with disabilities for every 50 other employees. In the event of failure to do so, a contribution amounting to the minimum monthly national salary for each person with disability who should have been employed must be paid to the Social Employment Fund. In case of breach, employers will be subject to a penalty amounting up to 50 times the minimum monthly national salary, i.e. ALL 1,300,000.

Employers are also obliged to preserve the positions of those employees who did not have disabilities at the time of employment but suffered such due to work accidents or professional disease.

Changes in the competent labor authorities

An Institution for employment replacing the National Employment Service and the Regional Labor Offices will be established within six months from entry into force of the Law. This institution will be responsible for the administration and implementation of the employment promotion programs and professional training programs, as well as the administration of professional education providers.

In addition, the Law provides for the establishment of the Social Employment Fund as a public financial fund. The objectives of the Fund encompass the promotion, employment, integration and social involvement of persons with disabilities. The contributions paid to the Fund will be used specifically for employment or self-employment promotion programs, supporting services, adoption of working place for persons with disabilities, social integration programs and supporting programs for promotion of employment of relatives to persons with disabilities.

Detailed regulations for the functions and organization of the above bodies will be issued by the Council of Ministers.

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SOURCE: KPMG