Page 17 - IDEA Kurzarbeit zahranicni zkusenost Covid19 duben2020 13

SHORT-TIME WORK AND RELATED MEASURES TO MITIGATE
THE CONSEQUENCES OF A (PARTIAL) ECONOMIC SHUTDOWN IDEA 2020
The short-time work compensation schemes in place during the great recession varied widely in their design. Most countries allowed reductions up to 100% and many countries also allowed very small reductions of hours worked. A few countries allowed for both extremes, leaving the size of the reduction entirely up to the employer and employee. Yet, some countries also severely restricted the range of permissible reductions, both from above (with Luxemburg and the Netherlands allowing reductions up to 50% and the extreme of New Zealand imposing a maximum reduction of 12.5%) or from below (with the extreme of a minimum reduction of 40% in Denmark, Ireland and Norway). See Hijzen and Venn (2011) Table 1 for an overview. Almost all countries imposed tight limitations on the duration of short-time work or temporal limits on the existence of the program in order to prevent the programs from hindering recovery.
Eligibility requirements also varied widely across countries. See Table 2 in Hijzen and Venn (2011) for an overview. Most, but not all countries required some form of justification. The majority of countries also required some form of agreement with employees or unions. Some countries tied eligibility of workers to the eligibility standards to receive unemployment benefits. Many programs included additional requirements such as provision of compulsory training, job search requirements or firm-level requirements such as no dismissals or a recovery plan.
Finally, the programs varied substantially in their generosity and the extent to which reductions not replaced by government funds were paid for by the employer or the employee. Both reductions in labor costs and reductions in salaries often vary by the size of the reduction and other factors, making them difficult to summarize quantitatively. In many countries and situations, hours not worked are entirely free to the employer. Yet in some cases and countries, hours not worked were still costly to the employer, reaching a maximum of 47% of usual hourly wages, according to Figure 1 in Hijzen and Venn (2011). The impact on wages received is even more variable; see Figure 2 in Hijzen and Venn (2011) for examples. Most countries do not allow the entire salary to be replaced, though many countries allow for replacement rates close to 100%. In most countries, the replacement rate drops as the reduction in hours rises. For typical cases, few countries allow for replacement rates below 60% and (with an exception in Portugal) the replacement rate cannot drop below the replacement rate of unemployment insurance.
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