Aleksandr Lukashenko approves new law to create additional employment opportunities

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko signed a law to amend employment regulations in order to create additional employment opportunities.

The new law has introduced tougher requirements for getting unemployment benefits (in order to encourage the unemployed to get a job). To get unemployment benefits, applicants will need to meet the following criteria: to get registered with the employment service within a month after dismissal and to have been employed for at least five years before registering as unemployed, paying contributions to the social security fund.

The maximum period of being registered with the employment service was reduced from 18 to 12 months, the period of paying unemployment benefits was halved - from six to three months.

In addition, job quotas for disabled people were introduced. Quotas will be determined by the government for employers of all forms of ownership (except for public associations of disabled people, non-profit and public sector organizations).

The law expands the list of the unemployed who will be provided with additional employment guarantees. These include people of pre-retirement age (five years before reaching retirement age), as well as those who were released from occupational therapy rehabilitation centers, and former alcohol and drug addicts who have completed their treatment.

There will be more ways for job seekers to get assistance from the employment service, and for employers to find workforce.

The unemployed will be able to register online and with the employment service located at their actual place of residence, not only the place of their official residence.

Employers will be granted the right to submit to the national bank of vacancies information on the current and prospective need for workforce.