Vol. 497 No. 4
74 Mr. Allen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason the job initiative scheme participants are not receiving a Christmas bonus in 1998; and the projected cost in this regard. [25218/98]
The job initiative is a pilot programme designed to provide temporary full-time jobs for persons who have been unemployed for five years or more and who, in consequence, experience particular difficulty in obtaining a job in the open labour market. There are, at present, 2000 places on the programme.
Job initiative workers are paid a rate for the job. They have the same conditions in terms of holidays, sick leave, grievance/disciplinary procedures and taxation as in an open labour market job.
Like employees in the open labour market, they keep an entitlement to a medical card for three years and are also eligible to qualify for family income supplement. As the rate of pay of job initiative workers varies from job to job and the question of a Christmas bonus does not arise, the resources required to collate the projected cost of providing a Christmas bonus cannot be justified.
