Spanish Government, Employers And Unions Remain At Loggerheads Over ERTE Extension

Spanish Government, Employers And Unions Remain At Loggerheads Over ERTE Extension.

THE Spanish government, due to a lack of unity, was not able to agree on a simple negotiation for the new extension of the temporary employment regulation files (ERTE). After days of intense talks, it became clear that the ERTEs were going to last for now four more months and, therefore be maintained during the summer.

The conditions that must remain in place from the end of the month until September 30 have been another matter and after a day of fruitless arguments last night ended by leaving the government’s agreement with the unions in the air, when they rejected the minister’s ‘exoneration proposal’ of Inclusion and Social Security, José Luis Escrivá.

His department has not yet managed to force an agreement on the extension of aid to the self-employed.

With the negotiations bogged down, government sources confessed yesterday that they were unable to assure whether they would be able to take the extension proposal to the Council of Ministers today, Tuesday, May 25.

This morning, the UGT leader, Josep Maria Álvarez, already hinted that the extension could be approved on Friday in an extraordinary Council of Ministers.

The employers and the unions have continually defended the rights of the workers, up to the last moment, to renew the ERTE scheme that has been in force between February and May, against the opinion of the Minister of Inclusion and Social Security, José Luis Escrivá.

The third vice president and Minister of Labour, Yolanda Díaz, has been supporting the position of the unions for weeks.

Escrivá himself did not move on his position yesterday in his plan to prioritise the reactivation of workers claiming ERTE, to the detriment of those who remain under this anti-Covid umbrella.

CEOE, Cepyme, CC.OO, and the UGT maintain that it is the companies and workers who cannot return to activity that need more support. Up until May 11, the ERTE covered almost 600,000 employees.

Mari Cruz Vicente, secretary of union action of CC.OO said in a summary of the situation: “The only thing missing is the commitment of the Social Security.”

Vicente also pointed out that the rest of the questions on the extension are closed and that they hoped that the stumbling block on the exemptions would be resolved throughout the night so that it could be approved today and thus “provide security and certainty.” “If not, someone will have to assume this irresponsibility,” she warned.

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