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Ponta Delgada ,  March 30, 2020

Press release from the Regional Government of the Azores

The Government of the Azores begins today the immediate implementation of measures to the support liquidity of companies and the maintenance of jobs.
 
The first measure concerns the anticipation of liquidity for companies to support the maintenance of employment. 

As of today, the Azorean companies covered by this measure may apply for financial support corresponding to 90% of the regional minimum wage per worker. 

With this measure, the Government of the Azores provides the necessary liquidity for companies to bear the costs of paying workers' salaries. 

In addition to being a measure of rapid implementation, it ensures in a simplified manner that companies in the sectors of activity that were forced to suspend or register a substantial reduction in their activity in March will have the necessary financial conditions to pay their workers. 

The anticipation of liquidity is intended for the payment of salaries and, therefore, we also aim to safeguard the income of workers and the maintenance of their jobs. 

This financial support will be transformed into a non-refundable subsidy if companies maintain the level of employment until the end of the year, thus creating another incentive for companies to maintain employment.

In fact, this measure intends to create all the conditions so that the companies most affected in March by the situation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic can maintain all their workers.

The regulations published today stipulate the application period from March 30 to April 17 and extend the scope of this measure to all sectors of activity that registered a suspension or significant reduction in their activity depending on the measures adopted to contain the pandemic. Moreover, the access of smaller companies will be facilitated as far as micro companies and small companies receiving support up to 20,000 Euros will be exempt from presenting a bank guarantee. 

This measure also covers sole proprietorship businesses employing workers who carry out activities listed in the annex to the resolution published today in the Official Journal. 

The second support measure, whose new regulation was also published today in the Official Journal and comes into effect immediately, concerns the creation of the Regional Supplement to Simplified Layoff for the Maintenance of Employment. 

Following national legislation, approved last Thursday, the Legislative Decree no.10-G/2020 establishing an exceptional and temporary measure for the protection of jobs int he context of the pandemic (Simplified Layoff), the Government of Azores has decided to significantly reinforce this measure in the Region with the aim of providing Azorean companies with all the conditions to maintain, practically free of charge, all their workers for the next three months without any dismissal. 

The aim is to support the maintenance of jobs and avoid redundancies arising from the reduction of activity during the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. 
With this purpose in mind, the Government of the Azores will incur on a substantial portion of Azorean companies' staff for the next three months. 

With this decision, the Government of the Azores will undertake a huge financial effort by subsiding workers' salaries for the next three months. This aid may turn into a non-refundable subsidy, if companies maintain their workers by the end of this year. 

Basically, the Regional Supplement to Simplified Layoff means that the Government of the Azores will bear the costs of paying a significant portion of workers' salaries, while in the country these costs will be incurred by companies. 

Taking into consideration that a company submitting an application for the Simplified Layoff scheme, the workers' salaries will be paid at 70% by the Social Security and the remaining 30% by the company.
 
With the Regional Supplement to Simplified Layoff, this 30% component to be paid by the employer will be almost fully supported by the Region. 

In the first month, companies and entrepreneurs will have no costs with workers, while in the second month the Government will subside these costs at 83% and at 66% in the third month. The amounts to be paid will have as reference the regional minimum wage. 

During this period, Azorean companies are also exempt from paying Social Security contributions, the Single Social Tax (TSU). 

In the next three months - April, May and June - the Azorean companies that maintain jobs will benefit from substantially reduced costs, through the reinforced measures implemented by the Region. 

In addition to complementing and reinforcing the scope of the national economic measures adopted in the Region, these two measures will provide Azorean companies with all the conditions to maintain all their jobs. 

These two measures that come into effect today provide for the following: 

- immediate regional financial support for Azorean companies to maintain their workers and jobs for the next three months; 

- companies that registered a significant reduction in their activity will receive financial support to fund almost entirely their staff costs;

- they do not need to resort to lines of credit to guarantee their employees' salaries in the next three months; 

- Azorean companies that maintain their jobs this year do not need to resort to external funding or lines of credit to pay workers' salaries in the next three months;

- with the aid granted by the Government of the Azores, regional companies will benefit from more support than other companies in the country in the next three months; 

- the support is immediate, directly accessible and free of bureaucracy.

With these two measures, in the next three months, the Government of the Azores will undertake an additional effort and inject another 45 million Euros into the regional economy to support the maintenance of jobs for Azoreans workers and regional companies.
 
With these measures, regional companies will have all the conditions to avoid redundancies in the next three months and will benefit from the all the incentives and support to maintain their workers with very residual costs. 

Within the reach of our resources and powers, we will always seek responses so that Azorean companies can maintain their jobs in this difficult situation. 

Applications for these measures can be made directly on the Regional Government Employment Portal at https://portaldoemprego.azores.gov.pt/.
 
The Regional Government's financial effort, which corresponds to the immediate allocation of 45 million Euros, represents a considerable injection of liquidity in companies to avoid bank debt. Moreover, it also provides the possibility of transforming 100% of support into a non-refundable subsidy for the companies that maintain their jobs until the end of the year.

With this innovative and exceptional support, which provides Azorean companies with increased support in comparison with the national business fabric, we are confident that, in joining efforts, we will surely overcome this great challenge. 

In this context, the Government believes that, in undertaking this enormous effort, companies and workers will also strive for these measures to reach the scope we all desire.
 
And so, we want to continue our path: helping those in need, supporting all Azoreans, our workers and our companies.


GaCS/VPGECE
 
 
 
 
 
   
 

Official government press-releases presented in all foreign languages interfaces of the Azorean Government Portal (Portal do Governo dos Açores) are a sub-set of the government's official press-releases daily output and are chosen for translation and publication on the foreign language interfaces based on audience segmentation criteria. The entire collection of the Azorean government press-releases is available in portuguese, here, from the GACS Press Office site.

 
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