(a) State Insurance Fund Corporation premium discount.— An eligible business that has executed a job creation agreement and is a developing business, as defined in this chapter, may also enjoy an additional a fifty percent (50%) discount in the premiums payable to the State Insurance Fund Corporation in connection with eligible incremental jobs pledged under the agreement during its first year of operations as of the signing date of the special agreement. This benefit shall not be an impairment to also receive the energy credit benefit for job creation.
(b) Reimbursement of the costs of exporting products manufactured in Puerto Rico.— If an eligible business intends to export products manufactured in Puerto Rico, the agreement shall grant a twenty-five percent (25%) reimbursement of the shipping costs incurred in the export of such products during the first eighteen (18) months of effectiveness of the agreement. If the eligible business incurs in combined shipping costs to export products manufactured and products not manufactured in Puerto Rico it shall agree upon a reasonable formula with the Executive Director, which shall be defined in the agreement, to determine the shipping costs corresponding to the export of products manufactured in the shipping costs to be reimbursed prior to receiving a reimbursement under this subsection. Up to one hundred percent (100%) of the shipping costs incurred in exporting agricultural products of Puerto Rico may be reimbursed. The reimbursements provided herein shall be paid after the first year of the date of compliance of the second year, from special funds appropriated to the Company for the administration of this chapter.
(c) Partial reimbursement of wages.— If a developing business, in seeking to fully or partially meet the incremental job commitment set forth in the agreement, hires persons who were laid off by virtue of Act No. 7-2009, and were unemployed as of December 31, 2012, it shall receive a reimbursement of forty percent (40%) of the basic wage paid to such persons for a regular work shift (excluding overtime). Such reimbursement shall apply to wages paid during the first eighteen (18) months of effectiveness of the agreement with respect to eligible employees hired after December 31, 2012, regardless of the date on which the agreement was signed, provided, it is established, to the satisfaction of the Executive Director, that the jobs for which the reimbursement has been granted constitute eligible incremental Jobs for the eligible business. Such incentives shall be obtained through the Job Promotion Bureau of the Department of Labor and Human Resources as provided under Act No. 52-1991, as amended. In addition, funds shall also be available for employee training under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. The Department of Labor and Human Resources shall prescribe through regulations the process to certify that an employee was laid off under Act No. 7-2009.
(d) A wage subsidy of up to forty percent (40%) shall be granted to the businesses covered under this chapter for eighteen (18) months after the effective date of the agreement for hiring women 40 years of age or older. Funds available under Act No. 52-1991 shall be reallocated for such purposes.
History —Jan. 10, 2013, No. 1, § 4.6; July 5, 2013, No. 54, § 4.