The Commercial Area of Rocha made a request to the Council of Ministers developed in September in La Coronilla. As a consequence, the government passed a decree for youth employment promotion during the tourist season that seeks to “promote the first work experience for young people with formal contracts during a time of the year that does not affect their education”, explained the National Director of Employment of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS), Eduardo Pereyra.

The program, inspired by Law 19,133, focuses on young people aged 15 to 24 years old who have no prior working experience.

The companies will get financing for 25% of the monthly wages, which shall not be higher than UYU 14,906. If they also reduce the working day due to education reasons, the company shall access an additional subsidy of 20% of the working hour value, and of 40% if it is two hours. In both situations, the working day resulting from the reduction of working time cannot be lower than 4 hours per day. If a worker takes a day off for education reasons, the company will have an additional benefit of 40% of the salary for every day of study leave.

The contracts considered shall go from December 1^st to April 30^th, and must extend for at least 75 days, granting young people the opportunity to be hired up to two times in this way.

It is absolutely forbidden to surpass the percentage of people employed in this program, which shall be up to 20% of the company’s payroll. In addition, the program states the company cannot have ended labor contracts in jobs that have similar tasks than the ones the young person will do.