Companies can now join the new edition of the Federal Government’s Emergency Employment and Income Maintenance Program, starting today (28). The new rules of the program, which allows the suspension of employment contracts and the reduction of employees’ wages and salaries, were published in the Official Gazette with MP No. 1,045.

Rules of the BEM program in 2021

• Employer and worker must negotiate an agreement;

• Hours may be cut by 25%, 50% or 70%, with a proportional reduction in salary;

• Employment contract may be suspended;

• Measures must be valid for up to 120 days, that is, four months;

• In this period, a worker receives compensation for the loss of income;

• Calculation of the benefit depends on the percentage of the workday cut and the amount that the worker is currently entitled to with unemployment insurance.

HOW WORKER COMPENSATION WORKS

The Government will pay compensation for the loss of income of the worker. It must be calculated based on the value of unemployment insurance and the percentage of the workday cut in the worker, in an agreement for reduction of 50%, the employee receives 50% of the salary of the company and 50% of the unemployment insurance portion. The aid ceiling, therefore, would be paid in case of contract suspension and would be in the amount of unemployment insurance, which currently can reach R $ 1,911.84.

The government brings another Provisional Measure, MP 1,046 with more temporary changes in labor rules, including:

• Anticipation of vacations individually (with payment postponed for the third of vacations as a relief measure to the companies’ cash);

• Granting collective vacations;

• Anticipate holidays;

• Flexibility of rules to change work regime for home office;

• Constitute a special hour bank regime (with the possibility of compensation in up to 18 months);

• Postponement of employees’ FGTS payment for up to four months.

FGTS

Another MP, No. 1,046, allows companies to postpone FGTS payments from employees for up to 4 months – wages from May to August. In the case of the FGTS postponement, the suspension will be temporary and will have to be compensated later by the boss, and may be in up to four installments started in September.

One of the provisional measures provides for the authorization to anticipate holidays and more flexible rules for collective vacations.

VACATION AND HOUR BANK

The employer may also anticipate the employee's vacation, and must inform him / her at least 48 hours in advance, in writing or by electronic means. Vacations may not be taken in periods of less than five calendar days and may be granted by an employer act, even if the acquisition period has not been completed, during the 120-day period from the publication, the employer may change the regime of face-to-face work for teleworking, remote work or other distance work and determining the return to the face-to-face work regime, regardless of the existence of individual or collective agreements

The government also created a special hour bank compensation regime because of the measures, extending the period for adjusting hours worked. The focus is on the employee who has not completed the entire workday provided for in the contract due to measures to restrict the operation of certain economic activities, the worker has up to 18 months to compensate for the "negative hours". Currently, the period varies between 6 and 12 months.