The corona was over. Then it was not anyway. This winter’s corona outbreak led to the Støre government also having to put a wage support scheme on the table for companies. In exchange for dropping redundancies, the state was to take part of the salary bill. But now more companies are feeling cheated. The scheme is not adapted to the companies that pay the salary the following month. And the government has no plans to change that. Today, Minister of Finance Trygve Slagsvold Vedum answered a written question from SV about the wage support scheme. – If it were to be opened up for companies to receive support even for a month where they have had zero basis for employer’s contribution, it would have had consequences that undermine the considerations on which the support scheme was based, Vedum wrote in his reply. – We feel led behind the light He believes that those who fall outside the scheme are so few, and points out that those who did not pay wages in January, also did not pay employer’s contribution. Minister of Finance Trygve Slagsvold Vedum. Photo: ISMAIL BURAK AKKAN / news – If the employer had not paid wages in the support month, the employer’s tax base for the month would be zero, and the application for support would have to be rejected on this basis. Such a connection between the amount of support and the basis for employer’s contribution was necessary, Vedum believes. The answer is not good enough, says Executive Vice President Torgeir Silseth in Nordic Choice Hotels. He has no plans to give up the fight to get wage support for January. – We feel cheated, and led behind the light in a very special situation where we wanted to take care of our employees through this wage support, Silseth says to news. The Choice chain pays wages in the 5th month after. The January salary will thus be credited to the employees’ account on 5 February. The exception is in December, when Choice pays salary in advance before the employees take Christmas vacation. Believes the regulations were clear Choice thus received compensation for December, and for February. Since no payslips were printed in January, they fell between the cracks. – There are tens of millions for our companies. With a farmer as finance minister, he does not exhibit sound peasant wisdom. In Vedum’s reply to the Storting, he writes that by 22 December last year it was clear that companies applying for wage support could receive less support if the companies’ total gross salary paid was less than the same period the year before. – It was clear that a company would be barred from receiving support for a month they had no salary payment, Vedum writes. Silseth thinks this is wrong. He says the companies that chose to keep their employees rather than lay off, did not know if the rule Vedum now refers to, when they approved the scheme. In Nordic Choice, a general meeting was held on 21 December, to inform that no one should be laid off. – We had waited to lay off to put in place a compensation scheme. The details were not clear, but we unfortunately trusted the Ministry of Finance and were able to go out with good news to our employees that no one was laid off. – Is it wise to accept an agreement when you do not know the rules? – We had no choice. – Why not? – We had to either say that we wanted to lay off, or use the scheme. The rules they now invoke came afterwards. So it makes the unreasonableness even greater, says the hotel director, and adds: – Had we known that, we would also have had the opportunity to turn the payroll system around. Paid in advance. This is bureaucracy at its stupidest and most incomprehensible. NHO: Several plan lawsuits In Vedum’s response, he writes that companies that were unsure of how the wage support scheme would suit them, could have chosen to lay off their employees. – Would you have laid off if you had known about the rules? – I do not know. We did this to take care of the staff. We went to great lengths to do so. The heart says that we had come to do the same. But the calculation got a third worse. Communications Director Merete Habberstad in NHO Reiseliv. Photo: Per Sollerman / Per Sollerman Merete Habberstad in NHO Reiseliv claims that several companies are now planning lawsuits to get the money they think they should have. She also says that far more than the 25 companies the Minister of Finance believes are affected by the regulations have been affected. According to Nordic Choice, 80 hotels sailing under the Choice flag have been affected. – NHO Reiseliv will request a meeting with political leadership in the Ministry of Finance to request a new assessment, Habberstad writes in an e-mail to news.
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Feels led behind the light – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
