Hon John Key
Prime Minister

23 April 2009
Media Statement

Job Support Scheme expanded

The Government is to extend the Job Support Scheme to include medium-sized businesses with 50 to 100 workers, Prime Minister John Key says.

Mr Key today announced the expansion to the scheme, which came out of the Job Summit. The scheme lets private sector businesses, workers and unions negotiate voluntary agreements to reduce their hours of work to a nine-day fortnight.

Under the scheme, which three firms have taken up so far, the Government will pay employers $12.50 (the adult minimum wage) an hour per worker, for up to five hours a fortnight.

Originally for firms with more than 100 employees, the Government has now decided to expand the 9-day fortnight programme to cover smaller firms with 50 or more staff.

“The scheme was expanded following discussions with employers and unions since the Job Summit. They endorsed its expansion to medium-sized businesses because it may help save jobs,” says Mr Key.

“It is aimed at businesses that may be facing temporary adverse circumstances in the current economic climate.

“A temporary reduction in hours gives employers time to ride our adverse conditions and gives workers job security during that time.

“The extended scheme will be available to businesses with 50 to 100 workers from Monday. Expanding the scheme to employers of this size will make it potentially available to an extra 2000 firms and around 140,000 workers.

“It is difficult to estimate what the cost of the expansion will be. It is estimated that if around 6000 workers from medium-sized businesses take part in the scheme, it would cost around $4.5 million.

“We realise that businesses with fewer than 50 employees are also facing tough times. These firms will not be included in the scheme, mainly because the scheme is too difficult to administer for small workplaces.

“However, work is under way on measures to help small firms, and there will be further announcements on this in due course."

ENDS

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