Belfast Chamber welcomes unprecedented move to save jobs and incomes

Simon Hamilton, CEO of Belfast Chamber “Belfast Chamber has been lobbying all week for the introduction of some form of employment support to help protect people’s jobs and incomes.

“We warmly welcome the Chancellor’s announcement tonight of a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme which will help businesses that have closed or will have to close as a result of the pandemic to keep workers on the payroll and pay them 80% of their wages up to £2,500 a month. This is exactly the kind of interaction that we have been calling for and we hope that this will prevent the need for many employers to lay off staff.

“We congratulate the Chancellor for this move, welcome the fact that it automatically applies to Northern Ireland and thank all of our local politicians who put their shoulder to the wheel and worked hard to persuade the Government to introduce this unprecedented move”.