Information on the operation of the Compensation Funds Portal with the functionality that allows to recover the amounts paid into the Labour Compensation Fund (FCT), following the changes to the FCT and FGCT legal regimes, provided for in Decree-Law 115/2023 of 15 December, is now available at this link.
Regarding the FCT, the employer will no longer have an account associated with each labour contract of each registered worker. These accounts will be merged into a single global account per employer.
Consequently, it is no longer possible to ascertain the amount of payments made on behalf of a given employment contract.
The withdrawal of amounts must be justified on one of the following grounds:
- To support workers' housing costs and investments;
- To support other investments made by mutual agreement between employers and workers' representative structures, such as nursery schools or canteens;
- Financing the qualification and certified training of workers;
- Ensure the right of workers to receive half of the amount of compensation due on termination of the employment contract, calculated in accordance with Article 366 of the Labour Code, in cases where employers have funded the FCT.
Concerning mobilisation of amounts for the payment of compensation due to a worker following the termination of their employment contract, the maximum amount that the employer can recover from FCT is half the amount of compensation to which the worker is entitled.
Mobilization of the amounts is limited to two times when the employer's balance is less than EUR 400,000.00, and four times when the employer's balance is EUR 400,000.00 or more.
If the employer requests a refund of half of the compensation for the termination of employment contracts after reaching the above-mentioned mobilisation limit, the employer can no longer make further mobilisations in order to recover the remaining amounts paid to the Fund. Therefore, we advise that employers carry out an analysis and assessment of projects that could result in the organisation recovering as much as possible.
The requirements and conditions of the refund request must be observed:
- Indicating the amount to be refunded and the purpose or purposes for which the refund is intended;
- Indicating the beneficiary workers;
- In the case of support for workers' housing costs and investments and funding for the qualification and certified training of workers, a declaration stating that the duty of consultation has been fulfilled and that there is no reasoned opposition on the part of the workers, or that prior notification has been given to the workers;
- Where the financing of other investments of mutual interest to employers and workers is concerned, a declaration of honour that the agreement of the representative structures of the workers has been obtained and a copy of this agreement.
We are available to support the organisation with any questions that my arise in connection with the planning or implementation of the projects in question.
