Limits force majeure to companies with related activities and businesses
Source: Efe
The Government wants to extend until December 31 of this year the veto on objective dismissals for reasons related to COVID-19, according to the draft presented by the Ministry of Labor to the social agents in the negotiation to extend the ERTE beyond September 30.
According to the document, to which Efe has had access, Article 2 of Royal Decree-Law 9/2020, of March 27, with which the Government established that causes related to the pandemic could not be "understood as justifications for the termination of the employment contract or dismissal" will remain in force until December 31, 2020.
This meant banning objective dismissals – with 20 days of compensation per year worked – based on COVID-19 and, in practice, making them more expensive since they would be considered unfair with a higher compensation (33 days per year) or null.
The draft also includes the extension until December 31 of other measures approved in recent months, such as the interruption of the calculation of the maximum duration of temporary contracts affected by COVID or the PlanMecuida, which gives the right to the adaptation and/or reduction of the working day, with the consequent reduction in salary, for the care of minors.
As for the ERTEs, the Government is also proposing an extension until December 31 and, in the case of force majeure, limiting them to companies in a series of economic activities, yet to be determined, as well as to companies in other sectors but which can prove to depend on the former.
Thus, in order to be considered a company "particularly affected by the pandemic" and continue with a force majeure ERTE without belonging to the sectors set out in the final text, it must be demonstrated that, during 2019, the 50% of the business has come from companies that are included or document other types of circumstances that prove this dependence.
The text does not yet go into detail about the new bonus schemes that these ERTEs will have, nor about those of the so-called ETOP, to which companies can transition from force majeure if necessary, nor about the resurgence schemes that are left open to companies of any activity.
This would be a model of "differential, non-sectoral protection" that does not convince either unions or employers, who also do not want an agreement with a new expiry date in December.
This text does not specify the percentage of the regulatory base that will be used to maintain the benefits of workers affected by an ERTE from the sixth month onwards.
Counter at zero
The end of the zero counter is included, meaning that from October 1st the benefits consumed by workers in ERTE would be deducted from future periods of unemployment, an aspect rejected by both employers and unions.
And an extraordinary end-of-campaign benefit is being proposed for people with a fixed-term contract affected by an ERTE.
The Government, employers and unions will meet again tomorrow, Monday, to continue negotiating in search of an agreement on the conditions under which temporary employment regulation files (ERTE) will be extended beyond September 30.
Currently, around 800,000 workers remain on ERTE, which means that more than three quarters of the workers who were included in some file (more than 2.5 million) have left it, the vast majority to return to their jobs.
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