Coronavirus Employment Update 9/4/2020

We have a number of employment news articles related to the Coronavirus this week including:

Economy Could Shrink by 25% - Central Bank

Things are looking bleak for most of us, once we get out of the immediate crisis:
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/0403/1128199-central-bank/

Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme - FAQ's 

Our friends at A&L Goodbody have put together a very useful series of FAQ's to help shed light on the implications of the scheme.

https://www.legal-island.ie/articles/ire/features/q-and-a/2020/apr/the-temporary-wage-subsidy-scheme-frequently-asked-questions/

Potential Anomalies in the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme

It may be financially more attractive for some employees to leave work and claim PUP, rather than continue to work under the temporary wage subsidy scheme. More from RTÉ:
https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0406/1128911-covid-payment-anomaly/   

European Commission Mobilises All Of Its Resources To Protect Lives And Livelihoods

The coronavirus outbreak is testing Europe in ways that would have been unthinkable only a few weeks ago. The depth and the breadth of this crisis requires a response unprecedented in scale, speed and solidarity.  The Commission is further increasing its response by proposing to set up a €100 billion solidarity instrument to help workers keep their incomes and help businesses stay afloat, called SURE.  More here:
https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&newsId=9637&furtherNews=yes

Business Support for SMEs

Minister Humphreys has announced a major expansion of business supports for SMEs, including:

• Expansion of two SBCI Loan Schemes by €450m to provide an extra €250m for working capital and €200m for longer-term loans, bringing the total allocation to support liquidity in companies affected by the COVID-19 crisis to €650m
• €180m Sustaining Enterprise Fund for firms in the manufacturing and international services sectors
• Extension of supports for online trading to €7.6m
• Expansion of Microfinance Ireland funding by €13m to €20m for COVID-19 loans with interest rates dropped from 7.8% to 4.5%
• Free mentoring, free online training for all businesses

More:
https://dbei.gov.ie/en/News-And-Events/Department-News/2020/April/08042020.html 

Redundancy Pay Claims Suspended

Section 29 of Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 has temporarily reduced the scope of the operation of the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 (“the Redundancy Payments Act”) by the addition of Section 12A to the Redundancy Payments Act. Details on the WRC website:
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/news-media/workplace_relations_notices/lay-offs-due-to-covid-19.html