The New York State Department of Labor has issued an immediate request for applications (RFA) for businesses looking to hire new workers or re-hire laid off workers into new positions within the company that would require them to be retrained.  The applications are available immediately and the deadline for submission is November 1, 2010.

Under this RFA, a business or a business intermediary, such as a Chamber of Commerce, can apply to the Department of Labor to receive up to a $5,000 wage reimbursement for hiring and training dislocated workers.  All individual jobseekers will be screened to ensure they meet this eligibility requirement.  A business may receive up to $50,000 total to train newly hired workers.  Employees must be trained on-the-job and must be paid a minimum of $10 per hour under this program.

This program also may be used in tandem with the newly created HIRE Act (HR 2847) for businesses, which exempts employers from paying their 6.2% portion of employee’s social security tax from the date of hire through the end of 2010.  For more information please visit  http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=220745,00.html.

To access the IRS form, please visit http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw11.pdf.

For more information or to see if you qualify for the OJT program, please contact Mike Rosenthal, executive director of workforce and training at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, at 718-875-1000 ext. 108, or mrosenthal@brooklynchamber.com.