• Live.Coronavirus Spain today, live breaking news | Coronavirus Spain today, breaking news live | 43,956 positive toilets by Covid, 631 in the last 24 hours
  • Coronavirus. Unemployment shoots up 8% and reaches 3.8 million in the largest rebound in the series for the month of April

The risk that the government will reject in Congress its next request for the extension of the state of alarm leaves in a complicated situation the more than three million people who, according to official data, are affected by a temporary employment regulation file ( ERTE) due to force majeure.

The Government, through the Ministry of Labor and under the supervision of the economic vice-presidency, is negotiating with employers and unions a change in the legal situation of these workers, closely linked to the state of alarm. The decline of the alarm state would lead to the decline of its ERTEs, which should be negotiated and transformed into a new file. The negotiations have been active for two weeks and, so far, there has been no agreement.

The Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey, has asked the parliamentary groups for "responsibility" to give their support to the extension of the state of alarm, since the ERTE are subject to force majeure. Even so, it has advanced that Work will value "all the options" to avoid that the ERTE by force majeure decline if the state of alarm is not extended to prevent it from harming companies and workers. Negotiations are seeking an agreement to extend the ERTE so that they can be accompanied by the return to business of the companies in the de-escalation of confinement.

The state of alarm "is the legal umbrella and we maintain the idea that it does not have to succumb in the coming days," said Pérez Rey. "If the solutions were finally different, the Government would assess all the options to avoid having a negative impact on companies and workers," he said, when asked if the end of the state of alarm could lead the Executive to implement measures without have been able to reach an agreement with employers and unions.

The evolution of the ERTE and its income protection scheme, with the obligations that they entail for companies and workers, is a critical step in the face of the de-escalation of the health crisis proposed by the Government. But without the legal protection of the state of alarm, they would put at risk the economic situation of those affected.

"If the state of alarm falls without a new agreement, ERTES due to force majeure would end and employees would have to return to work, and they would stop collecting unemployment although they should collect wages," explains David Díaz, a working partner at the BakerMackenzie firm. "The immediate consequence was going to be in some cases ERTEs for objective causes and in many other massive layoffs," he concludes.

The State Public Employment Service (SEPE) paid unemployment benefits to 5,197,451 people in April, a figure that represents a year-on-year increase of 136% and marks a historical record. Of these, 3.3 million are affected by ERTE, 90% due to force majeure.

The monthly payroll of benefits, which also includes the payment of ERTE, has risen in April to 4,512 million euros, tripling the 1,468 million in April 2019. From the ministry they have specified that the ERTE benefit system and unemployment (the deployment of measures includes other categories) guaranteed in April the income of 22% of the active population.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Motor industry

COVID-19 de-escalationThe Community of Madrid asks Calviño for an automatic conversion of the ERTE due to force majeure to avoid "massive destruction" of employment

Coronavirus crisis The ruin of the self-employed: More than 550 do not even arrive in April and 12,500 are in ERTE only in the province of Castellón

Employment There are already 9 million workers in economic unemployment