Around half a million people have not received or are pending to collect public benefits for being an affected worker in a temporary employment regulation file (ERTE). The coverage rate of what has been the star measure of social agreements to face the health crisis reaches eight out of 10 people in this situation of suspension of employment, according to estimates made by the CCOO and CSIF unions.

The timely collection of benefits has become a problem for thousands of people throughout Spain since last March, when the state of alarm and the forced confinement of millions of workers was decreed. There were delays in April, there have been delays in May, and SEPE staff estimate that until June, not all payrolls will be up to date.

The payments of these benefits, such as unemployment, and others are made through the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), and are paid in arrears because the system used by the Ministry of Labor does not allow it to be done otherwise. The volume of demands, the dynamics of payments of the organism, its lack of personnel and means and different technical errors are what have generated that, according to CCOO, today 300,000 people have not received their payrolls for 70% of salary and around another 150,000 are subject to different incidents that prevent it.

In CSIF they estimate similar coverage figures only for the ERTE, although the SEPE carries another three million benefits corresponding to unemployment, in addition to extraordinary subsidies approved due to the crisis, which leads to estimate that the number of people affected by the delays may be longer. Domestic service workers, estimated to be around 200,000, would be added to the list of beneficiaries to be registered this week.

In April, the payroll of benefits totaled 5,197,451 people , a figure that represents a year-on-year increase of 136% and marks a historical record. The cost, as announced by the Minister of Labor at the beginning of the month, amounts to 4,500 million euros.

"It is normal for a person who has not been paid since March to be desperate for not having an income and having to resort to savings or the family network," explains Carlos Bravo , CCOO secretary of Public policies, "but at a general level it is important indicate that the coverage ratio for pre-crisis benefits was 60% and is now 80% if not further on a problem with a scale like never known. The Ministry of Labor has promised that in the middle of this month all the beneficiaries will be able to collect , if not through SEPE, by means of an advance of the bank at 0% interest.

In reality, the commitment was for last week, according to the words of the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey .

All the figures surrounding the ERTE phenomenon offer great variations depending on the sources. If the government indicated last week that the total number of those affected stood at 3.3 million, the unions insist that it is at four or more million. The regional figures are also very different and do not match those of the Central Administration.

The most affected territories such as Madrid, Catalonia and Andalusia offer very disparate impact figures. Until last May 5, Madrid, for example, had 76,624 ERTE registered, of which 96% resolved positively. According to data from the regional government, which affects 466,822 workers and 396,000 have been recognized and ordered to pay last April 30, according to data from the regional government, to prevent the beneficiaries from staying at Discover.

In Andalusia , the number of affected by 97,000 ERTE in April rose to 504,000 according to the Employment Ministry of the Board and the payroll of beneficiaries reached 355,000. The Generalitat for its part affirms that 244,000 people out of a total of 744,000 affected in Catalonia have not received.

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  • CCOO
  • Madrid
  • Andalusia
  • Catalonia
  • Spain
  • Yolanda Diaz
  • Unemployment

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