From the Director, in 2003 Newsletter regarding “Sustainability
and Institutionalization”…
The final round of PRiSMa demonstration projects has now reached
the point where action plans are written for LED projects in
Berovo, Kocani, Prilep, Resen, Valandovo and Vinica; LMAC programs
in Demir Hisar, Gevgelija, Kicevo, Makedonski Brod and Negotino;
and Quick Start training plans are being written for employers
in all of these same communities as well as Kratovo. By the
expected completion date for all these plans, 31 December 2003,
each of 30 community teams (see the map on the front page)
throughout Macedonia will have the experience and skills to
continue the activities associated with the integrated worker
adjustment model.
This, and earlier issues of the PRiSMa newsletter report on
laws and policies being adopted by the Government of the Republic
of Macedonia, its local units of government and its business
community that make permanent many practices introduced by
the PRiSMa project. Because each local team has had the opportunity
to learn the methods and practices during the PRiSMa demonstration
phase, each community is prepared to follow through on the
policy changes. They will have the skills and expanded vision
they need to continue to build labor flexibility in their respective
local economies.
Institutionalization at the national level will mean nothing
without local capacity. Capacity depends on people: local teams
with the skills, knowledge and cooperative attitudes to create
sustainable local strategies.
Increasingly, the important information for PRiSMa partners
to share has moved from the basic LED, LMAC and QS processes
to learning skills that help teams further develop their local
economic contexts so the labor market expands. For example,
in this newsletter issue there is information about recent
training to help communities develop business clusters, information
about new forms of credit, about shipping goods and materials,
and about the franchise business form. Depending on your local
economic strategy, the relevance of these items varies. Maybe
they simply stimulate imagination. Imagination sparks creativity,
which is essential to development. Many Macedonians are in
the habit of thinking they have no new possibilities, but with
creativity it is surprising what can become possible.
Examples of institutionalization and policy change:
The National Employment Bureau is Implementing the Amended
Workers Relations Law and the New Employment Law
On March 31 the Parliament adopted the Worker Adjustment Law,
which includes an amendment (Article 9) on active pre lay-off
services. This institutionalizes the Worker Adjustment/Rapid
Response Component of the PRiSMa Integrated Model, which has
been tested by local teams under PRiSMa guidance in Macedonia
for almost 4 years. Article 9 means Macedonia has embraced
pre-layoff services as a way to prevent unemployment.
The New Employment Law was adopted simultaneously. It provides
for
an active labor market policy, with measures for increasing
labor market flexibility, measures for up-dating the data collection
and data sharing system, enhanced mediation and consultations,
poverty reduction and social protection system improvement.
The law also encourages widespread legal revisions aimed at
increasing labor market flexibility and participation.
This Law regulates measures to encourage employment of certain
target groups of the long-term unemployed. The measures contain
incentives for employers to hire legally. Consequently, people
who have received unemployment benefits will now become wage
earners.
The Law provides a subsidy for employer expenses for new hires
for an unlimited period of time for registered unemployed people,
for paid contributions on wages and additional financial support
for the newly employed who were recipients of money allowances,
for two years. The costs are expected to take less money from
the Budget of the Republic of Macedonia.
Early reports show immediate results. As of 23 May (only 25
days after the law was in force), this Law was the basis for
employing 758 registered unemployed workers. The largest number
of employments were in Stip (208) and Skopje (159). Trade is
the industry which had most new job openings, followed by textile,
shoe and food industry, followed by construction, storage,
communications, catering and tourism. 389 employers have employed
workers through this law, mostly in Skopje, Bitola, Stip, Strumica,
Kriva Palanka, Radovis and Struga.
Most (557) of the newly employed to date have been registered
at the Employment Office longer than 1 year, whereas 164 people
were registered bankruptcy workers and 30 redundancy lay-offs.
In April 2003 the National Employment Office issued a book
of instructions and trained its field staff for conducting
activities for the Employment Encouragement Law. Each Employment
Office in Macedonia is the local resource center for answering
questions and helping both the employers and the unemployed
take advantage of the new law.
Employment Policy will Include PRiSMa
Using funding and technical assistance from the European Agency
for Reconstruction, the Ministry of Labor launched a program
on 3 June 2003 to upgrade the capacity of Employment Services
in Macedonia and to develop an Employment Policy consistent
with European Union Standards. This will be a 2 year project
that starts with automation of National Employment Bureau data
management. At the same time, an Employment/Unemployment policy
is being written. An important point in the scope of work is
that this policy will include the best practices from the PRiSMa
project. The MoL's inclusion of this requirement recognizes
the success of the many PRiSMa partners in changing their local
employment environment.
