Kurzarbeit details

The amended rules of the wage subsidy related to employment in reduced working time (“Kurzarbeit”) entered into force on 29 April 2020, and it was also on this day only that the National Employment Service finally published the necessary forms on its website.

Due to the above, those who finally decided to apply for the subsidy from 1 May only had less than two full days to interpret and sign the forms and to submit their applications. Maybe this also explains why applications were so far only submitted by 500 businesses for 5,000 employees.

Somewhat counterbalancing the very short deadline was the fact that the administrative burdens associated with the application have become significantly simpler. The application form has been shortened, the scope of documents to be enclosed has been reduced, and even a table helping in the calculation of the subsidy was provided for the applicants.

Of course, all of these steps of simplification still have not made the task of weighing whether it is really worth applying for the subsidy easier.

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