French Labor Minister Says 9.6Mln People Get Salaries Due to 'Partial Unemployment' Scheme

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th April, 2020) French Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud told the RTL broadcaster on Monday that 9.6 million French citizens continued receiving their salaries despite the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic due to the so-called partial unemployment initiative established by the government to support companies.

The initiative was set up to minimize the damaging consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak on businesses and help them survive the lockdown. Under the program, business owners can temporarily reduce their employees' working hours or even allow them to not work amid the epidemic and still pay them a certain sum with the government partially funding these payments.

"As of this morning, 9.6 million employees who keep their employment contract, are partially unemployed but their salary is paid by the state .

.. In France, we can be proud that we have protected the French from a social catastrophe," Penicaud stated, adding that almost 785.000 companies made use of the partial unemployment scheme.

The minister also compared the situation in France with unemployment rates in the United States, saying that 22 million people lost their jobs there due to the coronavirus.

Penicaud noted that every second worker in the private sector received the payments under the program and encouraged companies to resume operations if they had an opportunity to do so.

The minister stated that the program would not be completely halted after the end of the lockdown on May 11, but it will be gradually scaled back as companies relaunch their activities.

As of Monday, more than 150,000 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in France, with almost 20,000 fatalities.