The network of offices of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) could delay the opening of its doors to the public until summer, later than other areas of the Public Administration that will start again next Monday.

SEPE is considered an essential service within the Administration, although it has had to face an extraordinary situation in the last three months. In the entire period since March 16, it has kept its office network closed but at the same time it has multiplied its production. It has processed through telework an avalanche of files corresponding to 3.2 million workers affected by temporary employment regulation (ERTE) files plus the dismissals of another 900,000, in addition to the 2.1 million benefits that were already processed and other subsidies.

The demand to resolve these approximately six million cases with a staff of 7,000 workers has caused significant delays in the payment of benefits. The concern caused by the beneficiaries of these subscriptions and the need to have a risk protocol to avoid contagions yesterday led SEPE workers to ask the agency to delay opening offices until the entire payment system is in order. Sources attending this meeting indicated that it is assumed that it will not open next week and that a specific date was not negotiated, not even next month.

The number of beneficiaries who have not received their benefits or have received them poorly is not precisely known. Since last April, the Ministry of Labor has been repeating that there is no more problem than the volume of files that has fallen on SEPE workers.

The College of Administrative Managers indicated yesterday that the figure could rise to 900,000. In this sense, the CSIF union highlighted yesterday that thousands of people affected by an ERTE and other circumstances are still pending receipt of the benefit, "despite repeated statements by the Minister of Labor in which it indicates that it is a resolved question . " The union points out that "this situation generates uncertainty, disappointment and, of course, vulnerability in this group of unemployed people, which transfers its deep discomfort to SEPE workers, who are the ones who stand up for their daily work in the face of the repeated irresponsibility of political declarations ».

The protocol to reopen the network is complicated when the central administration offices are shared with the autonomous ones. In Catalonia, the CCOO Secretary of Labor, Ricard Bellera, pointed out that the union has transferred to SEPE in just one week up to 140 collective claims that affect more than 12,000 workers who are unpaid or who have only partially done so.

Only in Catalonia, the SEPE has admitted that the number of workers affected by an ERTE who have not yet been paid in Catalonia for not having the benefit recognized could reach 70,000 , reports Efe.

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  • Catalonia
  • CCOO
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