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Addressing Unemployment Key Priority Across Political Spectrum
Wednesday 12 May 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, May 12 (TASR) - The unfavourable development of the employment rate in Slovakia, interconnection of the labour market and education or abuse of the social system by the long-term unemployed were discussed at a conference organised by the Employment Institute on Wednesday in Bratislava.
The conference was attended by representatives of Coalition, Opposition and non-parliamentary parties, who concurred that dealing with these issues needs to be a priority for Slovakia.
All political parties, now gearing up for the June 12 general election, are promising to address the issue of unemployment in their election programmes.
According to Smer-SD, labour market policies must be focused on reaching accord between employers and citizens. Smer-SD presents a number of measures in its election programme to make that happen.
"On one hand, we need to aid employers with proactive policies involving investment stimuli and appropriate preparation of their workforce. On the other hand, the social welfare of potential employees needs to be improved," said Centre for Labour, Social Affairs and Family General Director Jan Sihelsky.
SDKU-DS wants to address the unemployment by focusing mainly on the middle-class and families with children. "We stand convinced that Slovakia can get out of the current unfavourable situation without having to raise taxes or deductions," said SDKU-DS MP Ivan Stefanec. Also, SDKU-DS is proposing a significant simplification the deduction system - downsizing the current 13 types of deductions to only two. "We'd also like to introduce an allowable item in deductions, so as to improve the situation of people on low incomes," added Stefanec.
SDKU-DS would also like to introduce the so-called transitional-labour market to address the issue of the long-term unemployed. According to Stefanec, these people could work for lower wages, with the stipulation that they would also receive social benefits from the state.
Non-parliamentary party Most-Hid proclaims in its election programme that it will reduce the unemployment rate to single digits (currently around 13 percent). "However, in order for that to happen, we need to change the deduction system, the Labour Code and the way education is interconnected with business," said Ivan Svejna from Most-Hid. He added that it's necessary to improve the business environment in Slovakia, because it's new investors who create new jobs.
Freedom and Solidarity Party (SaS) prefers the introduction of deduction bonus as a compensation for non-taxable portion of the tax base in order to motivate the lowest-income groups to find a job. "If someone earns, say, €200 on a monthly basis, they wouldn't automatically lose all social benefits that they had previously been eligible for," said Robert Harhovsky from SaS.
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