One million workers hit by coronavirus crisis in Spain’s Cataluña trade union warns

ONE million workers in Spain’s Cataluña region have been hit by the coronavirus crisis, according to the calculations of the Comisiones Obreros trade union.

The CCOO estimates that some 520,000 employees have been temporarily laid off and a further 500,000 have lost their jobs since the State of Alarm came into force a fortnight ago.

Regional CCOO secretary-general Javier Pacheco said a large chunk of the dismissals the union has detected are down to employers terminating the contracts of temporary or part-time workers, pointing out that compensation amounts would have been pretty low.

Both the CCOO and the UGT union have called on the State employment service “to do everything necessary” to ensure the workers who need it will receive unemployment payments at the beginning of April and not have to wait more than a month for money.

The Catalan labour department warns that with so many businesses aiming to temporarily lay off employers approximately 15 per cent of Cataluña’s workforce will have needed to claim unemployment benefit before the year is out.

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Written by

Cathy Elelman

Cathy Elelman is the local writer for the Costa de Almeria edition of the Euro Weekly News.

Based in Mojacar for the last 21 years, Cathy is very much part of the local community and is always well and truly up on all the latest news and events going on in this region of Spain.

Her top goals are to do the best job she can informing the local English-speaking community, visitors to the area and the wider world about about the news in Almeria, to learn something new every day, and to embrace very new challenge this fast-changing world brings her way.

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