In June 2010, a significant development in employment law was witnessed when the government introduced an initiative aimed at encouraging job creation.

Dubbed as the Employer Job (PRSI) Incentive Scheme, it offered an exemption from employer’s PRSI (Pay Related Social Insurance) for a duration of 12 months from the approval date, granted to employers who hired additional eligible employees in 2010.

Essential stipulations for the scheme were laid down as follows:

The newly employed individual must have been registered as unemployed (Live-Register) for a minimum of 6 months prior to their employment.
The job role created must be full-time, new, and over and above the existing workforce. The scheme explicitly prohibits employers from substituting current employees to benefit from the scheme.
As part of compliance, employers are obliged to present an up-to-date Tax Clearance Certificate.
An upper limit of participation was set at 5% of the existing workforce for larger companies, whereas smaller businesses were restricted to a maximum of five new job roles.
Jobs created under this scheme were required to have a minimum duration of 6 months. Failure to meet this condition results in a requirement for the employer to repay the PRSI exempted amounts.

Interestingly, if an employer had created a job role in 2010 before the official launch of the scheme, they could potentially benefit from the employer’s PRSI exemption for that role for 12 months from the approval date.

According to companies similar to HKM, this was a significant step in employment law, encouraging businesses to create more jobs while offering some relief from social insurance costs.

More information on managing employees, including a new downloadable w2 form, can be found at the provided link.