Labour Ministry wants to enhance people’s motivation to work

Unemployment issues in the district of Trebišov have to be addressed on an individual basis, said Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Minister Ján Richter (Smer-SD) after Cabinet's away-session in Trebišov (Košice region) on Wednesday. "There is a major socio-economic difference between the north and the south of this district, therefore an individual approach is of the essence. I have ordered meetings with mayors and entrepreneurs at individual departments to be set up to talk specifically about implementation of tasks, time periods, financing, conditions and so on," said Richter. He was referring to the Action Plan for the development of Trebišov district that has been passed by the Cabinet. According to Richter, unemployment in the district is closely linked to a lack of education. "Almost 4,000 jobseekers have only primary education, some of them didn't complete even that level of education," explained Richter. The difference between the unemployment rate and the people ready to take up a job immediately is 5% in the Trebišov district with average unemployment rate hovering around 17%. Richter noted that one of the problems is people's inability to work, which is often being misused. "When there is a need to take up a job, healthy people suddenly become sick. They confirm it with a relevant certificate which disentitles the labour office to intervene," noted Richter. The main target of measures stemming from the Action Plan is to motivate people to take up a job. "We'd like to create such conditions that would motivate even parents of families with multiple children to work. The current trend is that if only one of them gets employed, the whole family will lose several social benefits concerning education, pre-school preparations and so on. We need to create a mechanism that would motivate even one of the parents to take up a job," explained the labour minister. The Cabinet at its away-session in Trebišov on Wednesday approved the Action Plan to create 1,540 new jobs by 2020. Ministers also granted the district a local contribution of €5.8 million.