Opening up New Service Occupations in the Field of Non-market Employment - The NEW START Pilot Programme
Opening up New Service Occupations in the Field of Non-market Employment - The NEW START Pilot Programme
The process of economic structural change towards a service society can be potentially expected to generate a substantial number of new jobs, according to both Austrian and international studies of this subject. So far this potential has only been exploited to a limited extent, however, because the jobs cannot (yet) be financed by corresponding market earnings. Experience in Austria and other countries suggests that it is possible to establish such forms of employment on the labour market by providing initial financing. Such work can be performed in:
- environmental protection;
- care, health-related and domestic occupations;
- culture and communication, new technologies;
- social work in a broad sense (e.g. guidance services for young people, care for the elderly, etc.);
- repair, maintenance and recycling work.
Within the framework of the National Action Plan for employment (NAP), the federal government has stipulated that new employment opportunities in the service sector, that so far have failed to appear to any significant degree on the market, are to be opened up. As part of the implementation of the NAP, the Federal Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs has initiated a pilot scheme entitled NEW START, the aims of which are:
- to incorporate new jobs in the service sector into market reality;
- offer the unemployed an integration path into working life that is long term in orientation and stable;
- provide an impetus for the creation of attractive, innovative and stable employment; and
- open up additional scope for the placement activities of the Labour Market Service.
The NEW START pilot scheme will have a budget of ATS 150 million. Support will be open to all institutions and enterprises that offer permanent employment contracts to unemployed persons pre-selected by the Labour Market Service. The level of support ranges from ATS 150,000 to 300,000, depending on the job, whereby the total of direct and indirect wage costs may not be exceeded. Part-time jobs are eligible for support. The duration of support is restricted to a maximum of one year. There is no possibility of an extension. It is assumed that local authorities will participate in financing and employers will bear a share of the costs, although this is not a necessary condition. Within the framework of the pilot project, around 800 permanent jobs are initially to be established.
The pilot scheme will be implemented by the Federal Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, which in turn has commissioned the Austrian Study Advice Society (ÖSB) with practical execution. All projects that meet the criteria set out in the accompanying guidelines are eligible for support. The criteria include permanent employment contract, respect for prevailing legal requirements in terms of social security, labour law and pay, contribution to opening up market, preclusion of substitution to prevent displacement, and innovative character. Acceptance of an application for support is given by the Federal Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs.
Participants in the pilot project are "activated" by means of a four-week, public invitation-to-tender phase (including Internet access), initially in the cities of Vienna, Graz and Linz, in order to generate a stock of project applications ready for implementation as quickly as possible. In the event that the earmarked financial framework cannot be fully utilised, an additional invitation to tender will be made, possibly widening the geographical scope. In either case, the aim is to create a basis for a subsequent generalisation of the scheme.
Project participants must, following acceptance of their application, report the job in question to the Labour Market Service, filling the vacancy from among the stock of pre-selected unemployed (at the time of the invitation to tender). Special target-group-specific restrictions on the unemployed persons will not be imposed.
The corresponding ministerial decrees have already been drawn up; preparations are currently under way for the invitation to tender.
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