Regional Government's financial support for payment of April salaries covered more than 10 thousand Azoreans
The Regional Government, through the Vice-Presidency, has already analysed, processed and paid 93% of the applications submitted by April 17 under the Liquidity Anticipation measure to support the payment of April salaries in the case of companies that had to suspend or substantially reduce their activity.
Just two weeks after the deadline for the submission of applications, 93% of the 1,879 applications have already been paid, supporting the salaries of 10,425 Azorean workers. This means that within two weeks the support requests submitted by 1,747 companies were analysed, processed and paid by the Regional Government, corresponding to an overall amount of 6.5 million Euros.
As a measure of rapid application, the Liquidity Anticipation provides financial support that corresponds to 90% of the regional minimum wage per worker, which does not mean the granting of credit but rather non-refundable support, provided that companies maintain all jobs by the end of the year.
This is an additional and exceptional measure in the national context. It was created by the Regional Government with the aim of supporting companies to meet the costs of workers' salaries, thus being also a strong incentive to the maintenance of their workers.
Accordingly, it is important to highlight that the data recently released by the Institute for Employment and Professional Training (IEFP) revealed that the Azores are the only region in the country where employment remained stable in March, which is the key goal of the countless measures created by the Government.
The Regional Government has already made and will continue to make a huge effort to complement and reinforce the scope of national measures in the Azores, thus benefiting regional companies with more support than the rest of the country, always with the aim of safeguarding the maintenance of jobs.
The Liquidity Anticipation measure aimed at helping companies to pay salaries and, consequently, safeguarding the maintenance of jobs and income of Azorean families falls within the support measures created by the Government to minimise the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of Azoreans.