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Automated translation of an article from the Moncloa website. We will add more details after reading the publication in the State Gazette and the SEPE website, when necessary.
The special COVID Temporary Employment Regulations (ERTE) will remain available until next January 31, 2021.
The amount of benefits is maintained
The calculation base for benefits will remain at 70% of the working person’s regulatory base, who will not see their income decrease, as has happened until now, to 50% of the regulatory base after the first six months have elapsed.
This system of decreasing benefits was in force since the approval of Royal Decree-Law 3/23012 of February 10 on Urgent Measures for the Reform of the Labour Market, which for the first time will be modified to maintain the purchasing power of workers.
ERTE due to impediment or limitation of activity
Companies in any sector or activity that are prevented from carrying out their activity as a result of the new restrictions or measures adopted as of October 1, 2020, both by national and foreign authorities, will be able to benefit from the benefits of the ERTE.
In the case of companies that are prevented from carrying out their activity in any of their work centers as a result of health measures, they may request an “ERTE due to impediment” whose duration will be restricted to that of the impediment measures. These companies will have an exemption in their Social Security contributions during the closing period and until January 31, 2021, which will be 100% of the business contribution during the closing period and until January 31 if they have less than 50 workers and 90% if they have 50 or more workers.
Companies or entities that see limited the development of their activity in some of their work centers as a result of decisions or measures adopted by Spanish authorities, may request an “ERTE due to limitations” from the labor authority.
In this case, the exemptions in Social Security contributions for suspended workers will be decreasing between the months of October 2020 and January 2021.
Companies belonging to sectors with a high coverage rate due to temporary employment regulation files and a low activity recovery rate
Companies with a high coverage rate for temporary employment regulations and a low activity recovery rate will be considered those that carry out an activity that is classified in one of the codes of the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE-09) collected in the agreement.
Companies whose economic activity depends mainly on companies whose CNAE are included in the standard or are part of its value chain may also be included in this section, that is, they can prove that in 2019 half of their turnover has depended directly from those companies or if they depend indirectly on the companies included in the CNAE – 09 code list.
The agreement establishes that the companies of the two previous categories, which automatically extend the ERTE of force majeure until the end of January 2021, will have exonerations in the Social Security contributions of their workers (both reactivated and suspended) accrued in the months October, November and December 2020 and January 2021.
The exemptions will be 85% for companies with less than 50 workers and 75% for those with 50 or more workers, both for suspended workers and for those who return to their jobs.
This concept of company results from those that, since the beginning of the health crisis to date, have not managed to recover regulated workers in significant percentages (less than 65 percent of workers recovered from unemployment regulation files) and that also belong to specific sectors (more than 15 percent of regulated persons of the total affiliated to the general regime in a specific CNAE).
These same conditions would also extend to companies that are part of the value chain of those especially affected. These entities must submit to the corresponding labor authority between October 5 and 19 the request for declaration as dependent companies or members of the value chain of another company.
It will be understood that the companies whose turnover during 2019 was generated by at least 50% in operations carried out directly with “companies especially affected by the pandemic”, as well as those companies whose real activity indirectly depend on them.
These same exemptions will be maintained in their Social Security contributions (85% in the case of companies with less than 50 workers and 75% in companies with more than 50 workers) in the event that the companies of the CNAE or the chain of value that initiate an ERTE for economic, technical, organizational or production reasons after the completion of an ERTE of force majeure, once the Royal Decree Law that includes this agreement enters into force.
Counter to zero
The workers affected by an ERTE will keep the “counter at zero” for those people who are affected by an objective dismissal, individual or collective, or another based on any cause, that is declared inadmissible, during the year 2021, or if their tempory contract will be extinguished within this year.
For the first time, people affected by an ERTE will have preferential attention to receive training courses and specific actions will be implemented for this group.
Safeguarding of employment
The III Social Agreement in Defense of Employment maintains the safeguarding commitments acquired in Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, and in article 6 of Royal Decree-Law 24/2020, of June 26.
In addition, a new period of 6 months to safeguard employment is established for companies that take advantage of a new exonerated ERTE.
In the event that there was a commitment to maintain a previous job in force, the beginning of the new safeguard period will begin when the previous ERTE period has ended.
As in the previous agreement, in the companies covered by ERTE, overtime hours, new outsourcing of the activity may not be established, nor new hires, be they direct or indirect, except for reasons of training, cover or other objective and justified reasons.
The limits set in the previous agreements on the distribution of dividends and the prohibition of settling in tax havens for companies that want to benefit from ERTE are also maintained.
Protection for those on ‘fijo discontinuo’ contracts
An extraordinary unemployment benefit will be recognized to workers with a fixed discontinuous contract or who perform fixed and periodic jobs that are repeated on certain dates, who have been affected during an ERTE during the theoretical period of activity.
Workers with a fixed discontinuous contract not previously affected by ERTE who have exhausted the benefits or subsidies to which they are entitled may also receive this benefit if they so request. Note from CAB. The SEPE website is being updated to incorporate the contents of this new Royal Decree at the moment, we will provide links when available.
Improvements are established in unemployment protection for people who work part time.
