Finland applies for EU aid to help re-employment of workers made redundant by Finnair

NordenBladet — Finland will apply for support from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) due to the redundancies announced by Finnair in October. Finland submitted an application to the European Commission on 30 December 2020. The application concerns a total of about 500 persons who were made redundant by Finnair or companies associated with it. Funding will be used for services promoting re-employment. The total budget of the project is estimated at approximately EUR 3 million, of which 40% will be nationally funded. The project will take place in the Uusimaa region.

“We want to respond to the situation in the aviation sector by applying for support from the EGF. It is important that the Finnish labour market can benefit from the diverse expertise of those made redundant by Finnair as soon as possible. EGF support will make it possible to offer customised services also for those who for one reason or another are not among the first ones to find new employment,” says Minister of Employment Tuula Haatainen.

Support measures for those made redundant ongoing since OctoberAccording to the EGF’s operating model, the support measures will start as soon as possible after the redundancy notice, even though preparing and processing the application itself is quite slow. Services for those made redundant from Finnair were launched immediately after the layoffs started in October 2020. The TE Office in Uusimaa has hired more than 30 new experts to serve job seekers from the aviation sector. All educational and other services for the job seekers have been designed in close cooperation with Finnair.

Prior EGF projects in FinlandTen projects supported by the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund have been implemented in Finland in 2007–2019. Seven of the projects have been in the ICT sector. The combined value of the previous projects is approximately EUR 70 million. So far, the number of beneficiaries has been around 12,000 and the employment rate in the projects has reached about 80%.

In EGF’s funding model, the EU’s funding share is 60% and the national contribution is 40%. In cases of major structural change, EGF support may be granted for active employment policy measures, such as different forms of training, education, promotion of mobility, pay subsidies and start-up grants.

Source: Valtioneuvosto.fi