Short-time working

In Austria, the introduction of short time requires a special arrangement between what are called the "social partners" of Austrian collective bargaining (which is to say, the Chamber of Commerce and the labour unions), who negotiate on behalf of the employer and affected staff the scope of the Kurzarbeit arrangement in terms of the staff covered, the maximum period of its application, the conditions for any lay-offs during the arrangement, and the scope of any professional training or re-training courses included.[2]

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic, the government of Czech Republic Andrej Babiš announced plans to partially subsidise salaries of employees on reduced work schedules, covering 50-70% of pay for 1, 2, or up to 4 days per week that employees are at home due to shocks to companies coming from pandemics or natural disasters. Employers have to cover health and social insurance for the days when workers are at home, and employees contribute by the partial reduction in their pay.[3]

It was in Germany that a system of "Kurzarbeitergeld" (or "short-time work benefit") was first introduced, on 25 May 1910, to address a downturn in the potash mining and fertiliser industry; it became fully established in 1924 in response to the first economic crisis of the Weimar Republic.[4] Under the scheme temporarily laid-off workers receive payments, now from the Federal Employment Agency (BA), the agency that is also responsible for issuing unemployment benefit. Under the scheme, the companies pay the hours actually worked at the original salaray, while the state (or the BA, precisely) compensates 60 per cent of the original pay for each hour not worked.[5] This means that an individual might work 30 per cent less while experiencing only a 10 per cent loss in income.

In 2009, the German government had budgeted 5.1 billion euros on the program, which replaced some of the lost income of over 1.4 million workers. The program was favorably cited in a 2009 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, which stated that it had saved nearly 500,000 jobs during the recession.[6][7] It is "widely considered the gold standard of such programs", according to the IMF.[8] Besides helping to avoid mass layoffs, proponents of the program also cite its keeping skilled work groups together and avoiding the atrophy of their skills during extended layoffs, while critics have expressed concerns about its expense and that it might prop up non-viable firms.[9]

Due to the economic difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Romanian government is considering adopting a measure based on the German model of Kurzarbeit.[10]

• Furlough, a temporary layoff legal in the United States (term also used for a similar instrument in the United Kingdom during the CoViD19 epidemic in 2020)
• Job sharing, also called work sharing
• Unemployment

• International Law Office: Kurzarbeit: An Alternative to Lay-Offs
• Paul Krugman -- Kurzarbeit
• Kurzarbeit, "living-dead capitalism," and the future of the left
• New York Times: Germany’s Secrets for a Steadier Job Market