• Health.Coronavirus in Spain: more than 100,000 infected and more than 9,000 dead
  • Shock plan COVID-19. The government is awarded the budget of active autonomous employment policies to pay the unemployment aid for the coronavirus

The intervention of the funds for vocational training managed by the Autonomous Communities to pay the huge volume of unemployment aid to be disbursed by the Government from next April 10, has strained the meeting between the two administrations today. Seven communities have rejected the government's initiative, agreed yesterday by the Council of Ministers as one of the novelties in its third wave of decrees to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

The regional division around the Government's response is thus evident. The measure, which involves the funds for vocational training raised through a 0.7% charge on workers' payrolls and which are budgeted at 2,414 million euros, has been supported by the rest of the regional governments, with which that has come out ahead . Labor had called the regional governments this morning to a meeting at the Sector Conference on Employment and Labor Affairs that lasted five hours.

The unease among governments that reject the measure has been expressed in emphatic terms in a joint letter sent by several of these governments to Minister Díaz. Manuel Rodríguez Rasero , Minister of Employment in Madrid, has sent a letter to the head of Labor in which he highlights the "contempt" that supposes not having made any consultation with the autonomous governments to explore alternatives and "practically eliminate the possibility of putting into practice active employment policies in their territory ".

According to estimates by the Community of Madrid, the intervention of the vocational training funds implies that the regional government will stop receiving € 139.5 million destined to develop professional qualification and retraining courses aimed at unemployed people and workers. The Executive chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso assures that with the unilateral decision to eliminate the distribution of funds to the autonomous communities, "the central Government reduces the rights of workers and prevents employment from being maintained."

For its part, the Andalusian Government, which is financed with 430 million euros from these funds, has indicated this morning that the intervention is an "improvised" measure and has expressed its disagreement by indicating that the Government had alternatives that would not mean cutting active regional employment policies.

Thus, the financing of regional initiatives in active employment policies must now be reconsidered, according to the Andalusian Government. The Andalusian Government has highlighted that the measure compromises "the reactivation after many years of Vocational Training for Employment", an initiative for which it has already tendered 41 million euros.

The decree approved yesterday redirects the purpose of the contributions on payrolls to reinforce the payment of unemployment benefits made by the Ministry of Labor through the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), an agency that has a budget of 22,000 million euros and that it will channel promised aid to the nearly two million people who could be affected by the hibernation of the economy.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Madrid's community
  • Isabel Díaz Ayuso
  • Unemployment

Shock plan The Government will extend to the domestic workers the aid for suspension of employment for the coronavirus

Macroeconomics Italy prohibits companies from firing for coronavirus for two months

COVID-19 shock plan The autonomous communities denounce that the withdrawal of 2.4 billion in training funds is "improvised and without consensus"