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EXTENSION OF AID FOR SELF-EMPLOYED WORKERS AND OTHER MEASURES FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY IN LA PALMA AND AGAINST SOCIAL VULNERABILITY.
The Government has approved a Royal Decree with several protection measures for companies and workers and economic recovery:
🔸 Help for the self-employed is extended until the end of June
🔸 Recipients of extraordinary benefits from the last extension will have reductions in Social Security contributions for four months
🔸 Special aid is maintained for suspension of activity due to measures to contain the pandemic
🔸 In addition, this Royal Decree-law also extends until June 30 other special measures that were taken last September due to the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in La Palma. Thus, the island’s special ERTEs are extended until June 30, which as of February 17 protected 804 workers.
The Council of Ministers has approved the Royal Decree-law by which urgent measures are adopted for the protection of self-employed workers, for the transition towards structural mechanisms for the defence of employment, and for the economic and social recovery of the island of La Palma, and certain protection measures are extended to deal with situations of social and economic vulnerability.
The first group of these aids aims to facilitate the reactivation of the activity of the self-employed and, in a similar way to what was done from October, exemptions are established in social contributions for the next four months. Specifically, the self-employed workers who have been receiving until now the extraordinary benefits associated with the pandemic of Royal Decree-Law 18/2021, more than 110,000 people, will be exempted from their Social Security contribution of 90% in March, 75% in April, 50% in May and 25% in June.
To receive these exonerations in the contribution, self-employed workers must remain registered in the corresponding special Social Security regime until June 30, 2022.
The second group of aid is focused on the self-employed who face special situations: on the one hand, those affected by the suspension of activity due to the pandemic and, on the other, those affected by the volcanic eruption in La Palma.
In the case of those self-employed who have a temporary suspension of all activity as a result of a resolution of the competent authority as a measure to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, they will receive an extraordinary benefit, for an amount of 70% of the base. minimum contribution. They will also have exemption from Social Security contributions, although the period will be counted as quoted. It will be compatible with income from paid employment up to 1.25 times the SMI.
In addition, the specific benefit for the self-employed affected by the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma is extended for four months. Those self-employed workers who have been forced to suspend or cease their activity as a direct consequence of this event are entitled to the benefit for cessation of activity until June 30.
Since March 2020, when this special aid for the self-employed due to COVID-19 was launched, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has dedicated almost 11,000 million euros between extraordinary benefits and exemptions in quotas with the aim of protecting this group and facilitate the reactivation of their activity.
In addition, this royal decree-law also extends until June 30 other special measures that were taken last September due to the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in La Palma. Thus, the island’s special ERTEs are extended until June 30, which as of February 17 protected 804 workers. Workers have protection and companies will benefit from exemptions of up to 100% of social contributions in the case of seeing their activity totally impeded and of up to 90% in the case of activity limitation.
A liquidity measure for companies on the island, such as the special deferrals of Social Security contributions, at a very low interest rate of 0.5%, is also extended for four more months.
Caring for minors with cancer or other serious illness
Another of the measures included in this royal decree-law is aimed at those people who had been receiving child care benefits or people subject to guardianship for the purpose of adoption or fostering on a permanent basis due to cancer or serious illness. Specifically, it refers to those beneficiaries for whom this benefit had been terminated before January 1, 2022, as the minor had reached the age of 18 prior to that date, since from January 1 this benefit has been extended for above the age of majority up to 23 years, in case the situation persists.
With this measure, these people will be able to reapply for the planned reduction in working hours and its corresponding benefit, provided that they continue to prove the requirements to access it and the son, daughter or person who has been subject to guardianship for the purpose of adoption or fostering permanent character in his charge has not yet reached the age of 23.
Through this regulation, legal certainty is provided, situations of vulnerability and uncertainty are avoided, both for companies and for workers, and an adequate and complete transition is guaranteed from the exceptional emergency regulation in response to the effects of the pandemic to a framework stable legal entity constituted by the reforms introduced by Royal Decree-Law 32/2021, of December 28.
In this way, once the trade union and business organisations have been consulted, the Government extends the effects of the extraordinary measures in terms of contributions and unemployment protection, including the measures for people with a discontinuous fixed contract or who carry out permanent and periodic jobs that are repeat on certain dates, as well as the complementary measures associated with the Temporary Employment Regulation Files (ERTE) related to COVID-19 and that are part of the VI ASDE, until March 31, 2022, thus facilitating a transition to the structural measures provided for in the Workers’ Statute.
The experience of recent months has shown the importance and effectiveness of resorting to ERTEs, as a mechanism of internal flexibility of companies for the temporary adjustment of their activity, in order to avoid the destruction of employment characteristic of previous crises. Based on this experience, through the recent labor reform (Royal Decree-Law 32/2021, of December 28), new instruments to guarantee employment and internal flexibility of companies, alternatives to dismissal and high temporary employment, with the aim of protecting employment and promoting the stability of labor relations, investment and human capital.
This flexibility has made it possible to cushion the effect on employment of a sharp drop in activity and has promoted a rapid recovery. Currently, the workers in ERTE-COVID are around 100,000, of which half work part-time, and they barely account for 0.6% of the affiliates.
By sectors, the percentage of workers who remain in ERTE-COVID is less than 8%, with the exception of travel agencies, whose level rises to 28%.
Expected exemptions
During the month of March, therefore, a model similar to the current one will be in force, with exemptions in social contributions of 90% in cases of ERTE due to impediment and 60% in cases of companies that have received an ERTE COVID and develop processes training and 30% (companies with less than 10 workers) and 20% (more than 10 workers) for those cases in which training plans are not implemented.
During the next month, companies and workers will have time to adapt to the new permanent mechanisms incorporated into our legal system from the labor reform approved last December. During that transition month they will have additional time to activate the ERTE for economic, technical, organisational or production reasons (ETOP), which require consultations between the company and the workers. During this period they may also prepare the required training plans.
The transition month will also serve to respond to the request to activate the RED Mechanism for the travel agency sector.
The entry into force of the labor reform opens several possibilities to maintain protection. In terms of sectors, the sectorial RED mechanism includes exemptions of 40%, conditional on training. In this case, the company is obliged to present a reclassification plan that includes mandatory training actions to enable relocation to another position within the same company, or to other companies. It lasts for one year, with the possibility of two extensions of six months each.
At the company level, there are also two options: ERTE due to force majeure, if there are restrictions on the development of the activity (with a 90% exemption) and ERTE for economic, technical, organisational or production reasons (ETOP), with a 20% exemption. % exemption if they are accompanied by training plans.
Protection of working people
In the month of extension, the transition is facilitated, in the first place, in terms of management, since affected companies and workers will not have to do any paperwork since the extension will act automatically.
The ERTE of limitation and impediment and the ERTE ETOP COVID are extended until March 31, 2022 and the current protection mechanisms are maintained, such as the counter to zero and the exemption from the grace period, mechanisms that, from now on, will be applied with a structural nature to the ERTE of Force Majeure provided for in the labor reform.
The extraordinary benefit for people with a discontinuous fixed contract is also extended for another month.
Valid until June 30
The MECUIDA Plan, which regulates the right to adapt and/or reduce the working hours of working people to attend to care duties as a result of COVID-19, extends its validity until June 30.
The ERTEs authorised to companies affected by the eruption of Cumbre Vieja are automatically transformed into Force Majeure ERTEs without the companies having to process a new application, until June 30, 2022.
Extension of the suspension of evictions and releases of habitual residence for vulnerable individuals and families
The Council of Ministers has approved the extension until September 30, 2022 of several measures promoted in the latest royal decree-laws on evictions, known as the social shield; among them, the suspension of evictions and releases of habitual housing for vulnerable individuals and families, in the cases already provided for by the current regulations.
The measures, which are urgent and necessary to respond to the situation of vulnerable households in a context marked by the evolution of the pandemic, include:
•The extension until September 30, 2022 of the protection measures that were approved for those vulnerable households facing eviction proceedings from their habitual residence, with the coordinated action of the competent judicial bodies and social services. Those households affected by procedures for the release of their habitual residence that are not derived from lease contracts are included, when there are dependent persons, victims of violence against women or dependent minors.
In the latter case, the possibility is established that the judge, after weighted and proportional assessment of the specific case, has the power to suspend the launch when the owners of these properties are natural or legal persons who own more than 10 homes, requesting a report to the competent social services so that they can assess the situation of economic vulnerability and identify the measures to be applied to respond to said situation.
In these cases, the cases that have already been regulated in which the suspension can never be issued will be taken into account and are:
a) When the dwelling is the habitual residence or second residence of the owner.
b) When it has occurred in a property owned by a natural or legal person who has it assigned by any valid title in law to a natural person who has his habitual residence or duly accredited second residence there.
c) When the entry or stay in the property has occurred through intimidation or violence against people.
d) When there are reasonable indications that the home is being used to carry out illicit activities.
e) In the case of real estate intended for social housing and the housing has already been assigned to an applicant.
f) That the entry into the property has occurred after the entry into force of the royal decree-law.
Likewise, in the event that a housing solution is not offered within the following three months from the issuance of the social services report, the owners of the property will have the right to request compensation provided that the economic damage caused is proven.
•The period during which the landlords and owners of the dwelling affected by the extraordinary suspension provided for in the aforementioned Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, may submit the request for compensation provided for in the second additional provision of the Royal Decree-Law 37/2020, of December 22, on urgent measures to deal with situations of social and economic vulnerability in the field of housing and transport.
Said period was one month from the end of the validity of the measures, so, by extending it until September 30, 2022, the new period in which said request can be submitted is set until October 31, 2022. .
These are urgent measures, necessary to respond to the situation of households in a situation of vulnerability in the context of the evolution of the pandemic. They are added to the measures of a structural nature that the Government is carrying out in housing matters, aimed at making effective the exercise of the constitutional right to adequate decent housing and among which we can mention:
•The development of state legislation on housing, for the first time in the democratic stage, which is currently undergoing parliamentary proceedings.
•The approval of a new State Plan for access to housing 2022-2025.
•The different measures carried out to promote a greater supply of rental housing at affordable prices.
•Actions aimed at the rehabilitation and improvement of the housing stock.
All these measures are based on a corresponding increase in budget investment in this year 2022.
National Plan for Seismic, Vulcanology and Other Geophysical Phenomena Surveillance
The Council of Ministers has also approved the development of a National Plan for monitoring seismic, vulcanology and other geophysical phenomena to optimise resources and improve surveillance, detection and technical regulation systems in this area.
In view of the experience gained during the volcanic crisis in La Palma, the need to strengthen the means available to deal with the dangers arising from destructive natural phenomena of a geophysical nature such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes has become clear.
During the year 2021, more than 18,000 earthquakes were recorded in Spain, of which more than a thousand were felt by the population. In the Canary Islands, a particularly volcanically active area, there have been two eruptions in the last ten years, one on El Hierro and the other on La Palma. Historical records show up to 14 tsunamis that have affected the Spanish coast. The last of them, in 2003, was a magnitude 6.8 earthquake with an epicentre in Algeria that caused a wave height of more than two meters in the Balearic Islands.
Spain has a modern seismic and volcanic surveillance system, consistent regulations and an internationally recognised research community, as has been made clear in the management of the volcanic crisis on the Island of La Palma.
An evaluation of the recent events that occurred in La Palma and other previous ones such as the Lorca earthquake, have also revealed the need to make improvements to strengthen the system that Spain has in this matter.
For these improvements, the plan will contain measures to reinforce the surveillance networks aimed at promoting their collaborative management and their densification, with the aim of advancing knowledge and research that allows improving the preparation of forecasts in the short, medium long term.
This plan will be valid for four years, without prejudice to its review when circumstances so advise, and for its preparation a working group will be set up in which the ministries involved in its field of action and the rest of the public administrations will participate.
