The European Communities (Iron and Steel Employees Re-adaptation Benefits Scheme) (No. 2) Regulations 1988

Payments during re-training

7.—(1) Where the Secretary of State is satisfied that a steel employee in the employment of a steel company who:

(a) is undergoing a relevant course of training; and

(b) will by the relevant date have been an employee of that company for 52 weeks,

will become a transferred or redundant employee at any time during the period beginning on the date on which his course of training began and ending 26 weeks after the date on which it will end, the Secretary of State may, subject to the provisions of the Scheme, pay him, in respect of any week of his course of training, an amount equal to his previous earnings.

(2) For the purpose of the application of the definition of “previous earnings” to paragraph (1) above (and only for that purpose) an employee shall be deemed to have been given notice of redundancy on the date when the course of training began.

(3) (a) Subject to the provisions of the Scheme, the Secretary of State may make a weekly payment to any eligible steel employee who after the relevant date is undergoing a relevant course of training and to whom a payment is not made for that week under the preceding provisions of the Scheme.

(b) The amount of any weekly payment under this paragraph shall be equal to the previous earnings of the employee concerned.

(4) An employee shall not be eligible for payments under this Article for a total of more than 52 weeks; and for the purpose of computing that total he shall be treated as eligible for payments in respect of a week notwithstanding that a payment does not fall to be made to him for that week under this Article because the deductions to be made under Article 11 from his previous earnings in computing the amount of the payment for which he is eligible exceed those earnings.

(5) Where an employee has received payments under paragraph (1), the period for which he is eligible for weekly payments under any other Article shall be abated by the number of weeks for which he was eligible for payment under paragraph (1) of this Article:

Provided that where, pursuant to Article 5(4), payments may be made at different rates during that period, the abatement shall, so far as possible, be made from weeks in which payment may be made at a lower rate.

(6) Where any person (including any Government Department) has incurred expenses in providing a relevant course of training for eligible steel employees, the Secretary of State may pay to that person such contributions towards those expenses as he sees fit.

(7) Where a steel employee is undergoing a relevant course of training and would be eligible for payment under this Article in respect of it but for the fact that the course in question lasts for less than one week, the Secretary of State may pay him, in respect of that course, that proportion of the weekly amount which could be paid if the course lasted for more than one week which the duration of the course bears to one week.

(8) The Secretary of State may pay to any steel employee who, being eligible for a payment under this Article,

(a) incurs expenditure travelling to his place of training such sum not exceeding £45 per week by way of contribution to that expenditure as the Secretary of State considers appropriate; and

(b) is undergoing his course of training at a place which is not within reasonable daily travelling distance from his home at the time when he became so eligible,

(i) such sum not exceeding £45 per week by way of contribution to any costs occasioned by the location of his place of training as the Secretary of State considers appropriate; and

(ii) in respect of each consecutive period of two months for which the course in question lasts, such sum by way of contribution to any expenditure incurred by the steel employee in travelling to his home and back to his place of training on any one occasion as the Secretary of State considers appropriate:

Provided that no payment shall be made under this paragraph to any employee eligible for benefits under any scheme for the payment of travelling and lodging grants or allowances to workers undergoing courses of training administered by or on behalf of the Manpower Services Commission or the Secretary of State under any provision of the 1973 Act.