The labor and business protection network extended by the Government to protect the economy from the health crisis will accumulate a minimum cost of 11,000 million euros until the month of May in the income coverage of more than seven million workers and hundreds of thousands of Business.

The Government yesterday distributed its responsibilities when quantifying the allocation of public benefits assigned to those affected by the coronavirus crisis. The Ministry of Labor took credit yesterday for having 5.2 million beneficiaries on its payroll, which would be the number of unemployed workers and those affected by temporary employment regulation files (ERTE). In total, the Labor payroll is higher since it includes approximately one million unemployed people who do not receive any benefit today, although this group did not enter the account.

ERTEs and the unemployed enter the scope of Work, which will disburse 4,500 million euros, the maximum of its historical series, to make these income coverages. In its calculation it did not include the benefits received by about 1.3 million self-employed workers ( 40% of the total) and which falls under Social Security.

The ministry led by José Luis Escrivá also offers quota exemptions and moratoriums for companies, and has paid 600,000 temporary disability leave . In total, from March 16 to May 31, Social Security will have spent € 6.5 billion on its income protection and business support system.

In total, according to the Government, the number of people in a situation of economic unemployment (ERTE plus unemployment plus cessation of activity) would amount to 8.3 million people, 35% of the active population .

Escrivá appeared in the Senate in the afternoon and pointed out that this May he will have the design of his minimum vital income ready, which he estimates will cost 3,000 million euros per year. Later he offered an optimistic balance when pointing out that he believes that, based on the dynamics of the data that is followed daily, the crisis has bottomed out. His forecast did not specify how the recovery will be after hitting bottom.

Yesterday, Labor published the statistics of the labor market in April, in which the number of unemployed registered in the offices of the public employment services shot up 8%, in 282,891 unemployed , its biggest rise in the fourth month of the year of all the historical series, due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus.

The total volume of unemployed thus reached the figure of 3,831,203 unemployed at the end of April , which is 667,637 more than a year ago . Catalonia, Madrid and the Valencian Community were the territories hardest hit by the crisis, from which no autonomous community was spared. Work activity fell to a minimum with the conclusion of 673,000 contracts, almost a third of the more than 1.7 million made a year ago.

Regarding Social Security affiliation, the records saw the number of affiliates drop by 4%, to 18,396,362. However, the rate of reduction in members is much lower than that registered in March, when employment fell by almost 834,000 people.

Yesterday the Ministry of Social Security published for the first time the number of workers affected by temporary employment regulations (ERTE), which would amount to 3.4 million people at the end of April. Of these, 90% would be under the force majeure formula.

In this sense, the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey, 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. Still, he announced that Labor will assess "all the options" to prevent ERTEs from force majeure from declining if the state of alarm is not extended to prevent it from harming companies and workers.

It is not clear to what extent the transition model negotiated by the social partners will be able to save the job currently on hold. The figures offered by the Government on those affected are inconsistent. The one provided yesterday is less than what the unions have been offering in the last month and which amounted to 3.9 million people; and also the one offered last week by the Government itself to the European Union in its Stability Plan, which amounted to four million. The Minister of Labor indicated in the afternoon, in the Senate, that 300,000 people would be missing to include in the list of beneficiaries.

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  • Social Security
  • Senate
  • Yolanda Diaz
  • European Union
  • Madrid
  • José Luis Escrivá
  • Valencian Community
  • Catalonia
  • Unemployment

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