Recently, Horesca businesses also increasingly criticised that the financial aids promised by the State are being paid out too late, leading to liquidity problems.
Upon request by industry representatives, the Horesca federation met with Minister of Labour Dan Kersch and Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot to discuss the payment of the partial unemployment scheme – a meeting which seemingly went well for all parties involved.
The reason for this appears to be that the main issue is an administrative one: Businesses submitting an application for partial unemployment for their employees must present two documents. Something which approximately one third of all applicants had for instance failed to do in November, according to Kersch.
The Minister explained that for the month of November, the Ministry had received a total of 1,473 applications. 855 have been paid out already while 80 cases are still pending. However, the Ministry also noticed that 538 businesses had either failed to submit a statement of account or had yet to declare the hours worked by their employees to social security.
Kersch stressed that his Ministry has committed itself to processing every demand that includes both documents within two to four weeks.
The process could not be sped up any further, the Minister explained, due to administrative procedures and a number of control mechanisms. However, the Horesca representatives seemed happy with the Minister's statements. The Ministry of Labour reiterated its guarantee that as long as the application includes both documents, it will pay out the subsidies within two to four weeks.
Both ministers also agreed to grant the Horesca the status of an observer during meetings of the Economic Committee, allowing the federation to receive information first-hand and forwarding it to its members.
It was also decided that the Ministry of Labour would individually review every application that despite being complete had still not led to aids being paid out.
