TOKYO: The Japanese labor ministry has announced a decision to further simplify the application procedures for employment adjustment subsidies given to firms that put workers on temporary paid leave amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The revised procedures will start as early as next week, as the ministry aims to encourage more companies to use the aid program to maintain jobs.

Companies with 20 or fewer employees will be allowed to calculate the amounts of subsidies based on the sums of leave allowances they paid. Currently, the levels of the subsidies are determined on the basis of the amounts of employment insurance premiums paid in the previous fiscal year.

For bigger firms, the use of payment notices for withholding income tax will be allowed for the calculation of the amounts of the subsidies.

The ministry has decided to cover up to 100 percent of leave allowances paid by small companies that temporarily shut in line with local governments' business suspension requests to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. It is also considering raising the ceiling on the subsidies, currently at 8,330 yen per worker per day.

Meanwhile, some labor unions have received complaints from member workers that their companies have failed to pay leave allowances using the subsidies. Some firms are believed to have opted not to apply for the aid due to burdens related to necessary administrative procedures.

"We will introduce a simplified application system, so we would like to ask companies again to actively use the subsidy program," labor minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters on Wednesday.

JIJI Press