In Montenegro, there is no upper limit for the provision of wage subsidies and other benefits to support the employment of persons with disabilities, and domestic regulations do not limit the employers who can receive these types of benefits. Thus, from the Fund for Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of PWD, wage subsidies are given to municipalities and municipal enterprises, general hospitals, and political parties.
In neighboring Croatia, as the Institute for Expertise, Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities told "Vijesti", there are restrictions, and for some of the benefits, the maximum that can be obtained from the state coffers in the form of subsidies is defined. In that member of the European Union (EU), the regulations also prohibit the granting of subsidies if the employer is, among others, a public institution or a body of judicial or state authority. They can count on subsidies only for adjusting working conditions for PWDs and co-financing the costs of professional support.
Acting Head of the Employment and Incentive Service at the Institute, Ana Marinović, she told "Vijesta" and that in Croatia they are constantly refining the regulations and the legal framework that governs the support for the employment of persons with disabilities and, although it does not exist now for wages, they do not rule out defining the upper limit that can be given in the name of those subsidies as well.
The Employment Institute of Montenegro and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare recently raised suspicions that major abuses are taking place in the payment of subsidies from the Fund for Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities, and that they have brought the Fund into bankruptcy and caused multimillion-dollar damage to the state budget.
At that time, they gave an example of a person with a disability who was registered for the amount of 8.456 euros of monthly gross earnings, and that he received a subsidy of 75 percent, or 6.342 euros, from the state. After paying taxes and contributions on that salary, the employer and the disabled person, as they stated, are left with only 3.900 euros per month.
Due to the fact that the current law does not provide for limits on the amount of subsidized earnings, as well as the possibility of controlling those earnings, the Fund requested changes and a limit on the amount of subsidies.
Practice in Croatia
In Croatia, as the "Vijesti" interlocutor said, there is an upper limit for some costs, such as technical and architectural adjustment of working conditions and the workplace, and it amounts to 40 minimum wages. The minimum salary in Croatia is 700 euros, so on that basis, you can receive a maximum of 28 thousand euros in subsidies, according to individual adjustments.
"Also, in the case of incentives Co-financing the costs of the work of professional workers and work instructors in integrative workshops and protective workshops, where the basis is the sum of the amount of the basis for the calculation of contributions for mandatory insurance of an employed person (gross and salary of an employed person) and the amount of calculated and paid contributions for mandatory health insurance, the prescribed limit for the base is 1.990,84 euros", explained Marinović.
The Croatian system also provides subsidies for the costs of transporting PWDs by taxi if, due to the type and severity of the disability, the person is not allowed to use public transport or the person is unable to use an official or private car for the purposes of performing activities. In that case, the maximum benefit amount is 132,72 euros per month per employed person with disabilities.
"For each individual type of incentive for the employment of persons with disabilities, conditions are prescribed on the basis of which the right to the incentive can be exercised, the amounts are prescribed in such a way that they are defined as fixed or in such a way that the base does not have a defined limit, and the prescribed method of calculation is applied". she said.
She was asked to comment on the case from Montenegro, where the founder of the company is a PWD and the only employee, that the financial statements indicate that the company makes a significant profit, and the employee receives a net salary that is 10 times higher than the minimum wage in the country and in the name of that salary receives a subsidy of 75 percent from the state.
"In this specific example, a self-employed person (as well as any employer) can of course independently determine the amount of salary for which he will have to pay all obligations and duties towards the state. In practice, there are few examples of salaries that would jump in the sense of a high amount of gross and salary (the basis for the wage subsidy for the disabled), or the amount of the paid contribution for compulsory health insurance (the basis for the subsidy of the paid contribution for compulsory health insurance). Through continuous revisions of the regulations, over the years, the legal framework is refined, and the option of defining the upper limit for incentives is also considered during revisions/amendments of the regulations," said Marinović to "Vijesta".
She also said that the rulebook on incentives for the employment of PWDs defines that "incentives for the employment of PWDs... cannot be provided by state administration bodies, judicial authorities, state authorities and other state bodies, bodies of local and regional self-government units, public services, public institutions, extra-budgetary and budgetary funds, legal entities owned or predominantly owned by the Republic of Croatia, legal entities owned or predominantly owned by local and regional (regional) self-government units, and legal entities with public powers". Exceptionally, they can exercise the right to co-finance the costs of adapting working conditions for PWDs and the right to co-finance the costs of professional support.
The program of subsidies for the employment of PWDs has been present in Croatia since 2008, and since 2014 it has been harmonized with EU regulations in its current form. Marinović said that every year there are more and more employers to whom funds are paid and that the number of people with disabilities employed by employers is also increasing.
"There has been a significant increase in the number of employers obliged to employ quotas who fulfill their obligation to employ PWDs in alternative ways to fulfill the quota, which also indirectly encourages the sustainability of employment and new employment of persons with disabilities," said Marinović.
A third to the minimum
Since the beginning of the year, the Council of the Fund for Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities has approved 809 requests for wage subsidies to those employers who employed PWDs. Of that, as told to "Vijesti" by the Employment Agency (ZZZCG), i.e. the Fund, a third of people with disabilities work for an amount up to the minimum wage - up to 450 euros, and three receive a gross salary in the amount of over 2.000 euros.
They also said that they are recording a constant increase in wages, "both minimum and other", "especially since the entry into force of the Europe now program".
"Vijesti" also sent a request for free access to information (SPI) to ZZZCG to provide the editorial office with records of employers who have employed persons with disabilities since the beginning of the year. Additionally, the records of those employers who employ PWDs, whose reported gross salary is greater than 2.000 euros, were also requested. These data were requested because the Fund claims that some employers and PWDs noticed a legal loophole, according to which there is no upper limit for wages for which a subsidy can be given, and that, allegedly, they started reporting PWD employees for unexpectedly high amounts.
According to the data obtained by the editorial office at the request of SPI, of the three employers where PWD employees receive a gross salary above 2.000 euros, two are private companies - "Dr-Trade" and "Agrolife Montenegro" from Podgorica, and Nikšić General Hospital.
Among private individuals, since the beginning of the year, according to the same records, the most requests for wage subsidies for PWDs have been approved by the company "Tabacco S Press" from Podgorica, for which the compensation was approved for 24 persons on February 15. A month later, at one session, 13 requests were approved for "Interfood 35" Rožaje, and 18 for the employer "Franco" Bijelo Polje.
The largest number of employers since the beginning of the year are private companies and non-governmental organizations.
In addition to the Nikšić General Hospital, employers founded by the state or municipality that receive subsidies for the wages of people with disabilities include the Berane General Hospital, the municipalities of Andrijevica, Mojkovac, Herceg Novi, Tivat and Tuzi, Municipal Utilities Bar, Tivatski Vodovod, Parking Service Budva , Culture and Information Center of Malaysia, Electric Power Company of Montenegro, Institute for Public Health, "Montefarm"... For two employees with disabilities, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) also received a wage subsidy on February 16.
Funds for the Fund for professional rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities are provided, among other things, on the basis of "penalties" paid by employers who do not employ PWDs. In addition, according to the law, the funds are provided from the budget of Montenegro, the local self-government unit in whose territory the person with disabilities resides, a donation.
Last year, the fund generated EUR 9,8 million in revenue, and subsidy expenses amounted to EUR 14,5 million.
Organizations of persons with disabilities recently assessed that the story of potential abuses to the detriment of the Fund is "obtaining social support for reducing the scope of existing rights".
"In such a way that the amount of the subsidy will be limited, which I expressly oppose, that is, the intention is to define the upper limit of subsidies that can be obtained by employers," she said. Marina Vujacic from the Association of Disabled Youth.
She also said that it is devastating that employers in Montenegro have the option of choosing whether to hire a person with a disability, or if they do not, they will pay "penalties". She added that the measure is still justified because, if employers employing PWDs did not have guaranteed rights to various types of subsidies, the number of PWD employees would be reduced to a statistical error.
EU Delegation: State to provide mechanisms against abuses
The EU Delegation in Montenegro, in support of policies aimed at the social and economic integration of PWDs, told "Vijesta" that authorities in the country should provide protection mechanisms against possible abuses.
"We encourage the development of effective public policy instruments aimed at supporting the full social and economic integration of PWDs, including support mechanisms aimed at improving their employment prospects. It is up to the competent authorities in Montenegro to ensure that the aforementioned public policy instruments are adequately directed and effective, as well as to provide protection mechanisms against possible misuse of public funds, including subsidies for the employment of PWDs", they told "Vijesti".
They referred to official reports that show what the practice is in certain EU countries. In Belgium, the subsidy for employment of PWD is limited to 150 percent of the guaranteed average minimum monthly wage. In Estonia, an employer who employs a PWD can receive a subsidy in the amount of 50 percent of the salary, but it cannot be higher than the minimum, which was 654 euros last year...
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