UNDER REGISTRATION

  • CÉSAR URRUTIA

    @cesarurrutiasj

    MADRID

Updated Tuesday, 19 January 2021 - 08:15

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  • Crisis.

    One million workers and self-employed still depend on the Government's benefits against Covid

  • Second wave.

    Blow to employment: November restrictions shoot 24% of those affected by ERTE

The future of ERTE beyond next January 31 will be cleared this morning with the more than foreseeable approval of its extension until May 31 by

CEOE, Cepyme, UGT and CCOO.

The self-employed workers represented by

ATA

have not yet closed their negotiations with Social Security, although it is likely that they will reach an agreement in a few days, in time for the new scheme to be approved by the Council of Ministers

on January 26

, a week before of the expiration date

al and overlapping with new turns of the screw to the time restrictions derived from the third wave of coronavirus infections in ten months.

Yolanda Diaz

, Minister of Labor, had proposed to close the agreement on January 15 to give certainty to the nearly 700,000 workers who still have suspended employment and the tens of thousands of companies that have had to avail themselves of the protection of the ERTE for the collapse of its activity.

But it has not been possible.

Last week the last fringes were closed and yesterday afternoon the leaderships of the unions and business associations finalized the details to present the proposed agreement to their governing bodies. Sources familiar with the process indicated that, on the business side, The protection that the ERTEs are carrying out on the most affected sectors has weighed heavily in favor of an agreement, to the point of imposing itself on

supporters of exerting more resistance to a firm due to the problem posed by the clause that shields the dismissal

of workers in companies benefiting from the aid.

The president of CEOE,

Antonio Garamendi

has called the board of directors this morning and, beyond the differences already mentioned, hopes to obtain support for a new extension of the ERTE.

The protection schemes for companies and workers were launched for the first time 10 months ago and involved a public expenditure of

14,000 million euros in employee benefits in 2020

, assistance to more than 3.4 million people. For their part, self-employed workers will try to close their agreement with Social Security in the coming days to extend the conditions under which they are supported by the closure of activities and restrictions of schedules and capacities.

The President of ATA,

Lorenzo Love,

indicated yesterday that the negotiations on this group of three million members are aimed at the lack of the Government agreeing to lower the loss threshold from 75% to 50% that the self-employed must demonstrate to qualify for the aid or carry the Exemptions from Social Security contributions up to 50% due to lack of activity On the union side, the CCOO and UGT executives are summoned first thing in the morning to vote on the extension proposal.

From the beginning of the bargaining, the unions have been much more favorable than the employers to a quick agreement, so that a rejection is not foreseeable.

Of course, the support for the Government's proposal will occur moments before the leaders of both formations,

Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez

, call on your bases to mobilize against the Executive in protest for what they consider a forgetfulness of the commitments it acquired

Pedro Sanchez

by seeking support for the coalition government and, later, the General State Budgets.

The degree of union unrest with Sánchez and the vice president

Nadia calviño

has escalated after the frustrated increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Salary (SMI), the finding that there is a parallel negotiation to which they go on the pension reform since there is no clear signal that they can tell their affiliates that the reform 2012 labor law will be repealed, even partially.

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