The Government decrees the closure of most economic activities with a mandatory recoverable paid leave
The Executive publishes the regulation only minutes before the start of the permit, for which reason it has had to give a 24-hour moratorium in case it cannot be complied with by the companies that justify it.
Construction must stop due to the new decree-law.
Shortly before midnight from Sunday to Monday the decree law (FULL TEXT HERE) with the mandatory recoverable paid leave for employees of non-essential activities companies. In the final list of activities that are excluded from the standard because they are considered essential, there is finally a catalog of 25 points. In the initial draft there were 40, but the difference is due not so much to the suppression of activities as to the fact that the draft was full of errors, misplaced activities, repetitions and duplications.
The great novelty between one list and the other is that domestic workers have not been left out of paid leave, whose activity is no longer considered essential. Some industrial activities (such as aerospace or defense) previously expressly included are also no longer essential. In contrast, veterinary services are now considered essential.
The Government has been polishing the content of the decree until the last minute and there has been so little margin since its publication that it has been forced to grant a moratorium regarding its effective entry into force. Thus, at the last moment it has been established that, in those cases in which it is impossible to immediately interrupt the activity, the affected workers may provide services on Monday, March 30, 2020 "for the sole purpose of carrying out the tasks essential to be able to make the recoverable paid leave effective without irreparably or disproportionately harming the resumption of business activity.
The decree law states that it will apply to "all employed persons who provide services in companies or entities of the public or private sector and whose activity has not been paralyzed as a result of the declaration of a state of alarm."
Therefore, it does not apply to workers of companies whose activity has been paralyzed. But, in addition, according to the norm published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), the paid leave regulated in the royal decree-law will not be subject to application to the following employed persons:
1. Those that carry out the activities that must continue to be carried out under the protection of articles 10.1, 10.4, 14.4, 16, 17 and 18, of Royal Decree 463/2020, of March 14, declaring the state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19 and the regulations approved by the Competent Authority and the Delegated Competent Authorities. [Article 10.1 included "retail commercial establishments for food, beverages, basic necessities and goods, pharmaceutical, medical, optical and orthopedic establishments, hygienic products, hairdressers, newspapers and stationery, automotive fuel, tobacconists, technological equipment and telecommunications, pet food, internet, telephone or correspondence commerce, dry cleaning and laundries”. On 4.10, hotel and restaurant activities, with home delivery. On 14.4, the transport of goods. On the 16th, customs. On the 17th, the supply of electricity, petroleum products and natural gas. The 18th, the critical operators of essential services].
2. Those who work in the activities that participate in the market supply chain and in the operation of the services of the centers for the production of essential goods and services, including food, beverages, animal feed, hygienic products, medicines, sanitary products or any product necessary for the protection of health, allowing their distribution from the origin to the final destination.
LIST OF EMPLOYED PERSONNEL TO WHOM PAID LEAVE WILL NOT BE APPLICABLE
The paid leave regulated in this royal decree-law will not be applied to the following employed persons:
1. Those that carry out the activities that must continue to be carried out under the protection of articles 10.1, 10.4, 14.4, 16, 17 and 18, of Royal Decree 463/2020, of March 14, declaring the state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19 and the regulations approved by the Competent Authority and the Delegated Competent Authorities.
2. Those who work in the activities that participate in the market supply chain and in the operation of the services of the centers for the production of essential goods and services, including food, beverages, animal feed, hygienic products, medicines, sanitary products or any product necessary for the protection of health, allowing their distribution from the origin to the final destination.
3. Those who provide services in hotel and restaurant activities that provide home delivery services.
4. Those that provide services in the chain of production and distribution of goods, services, sanitary technology, medical material, protective equipment, sanitary and hospital equipment and any other materials necessary for the provision of sanitary services.
5. Those essential for the maintenance of the productive activities of the manufacturing industry that offer the supplies, equipment and materials necessary for the correct development of the essential activities included in this annex.
6. Those that carry out transport services, both for people and goods, that continue to be developed since the declaration of the state of alarm, as well as those that must ensure the maintenance of the means used for this purpose, under the regulations approved by the competent authority and the delegated competent authorities since the declaration of the state of alarm.
7. Those who provide services in Penitentiary Institutions, civil protection, maritime rescue, rescue and prevention and extinction of fires, mine safety, and traffic and road safety. Likewise, those who work in private security companies that provide security transport services, response to alarms, patrol or discontinuous surveillance, and those that must be used for the performance of security services to guarantee essential services and supply to the population.
8. The essentials that support the maintenance of the material and equipment of the armed forces.
9. Those of health centers, services and establishments, as well as people who (i) care for the elderly, minors, dependent people or people with disabilities, and people who work in companies, R&D and biotechnological centers linked to COVID-19, (ii) the animal facilities associated with them, (iii) the maintenance of the minimum services of the facilities associated with them and the companies that supply the products necessary for said research, and (iv) the people who work in funeral services and other related activities.
10. Those of animal health care centers, services and establishments.
11. Those that provide services in press outlets and in the media or publicly and privately owned news agencies, as well as in their printing or distribution.
12. Those of financial service companies, including banking, insurance and investment, for the provision of services that are essential, and the activities of payment infrastructures and financial markets. OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE No. 87 Sunday, March 29, 2020 Sec. I. Page 27635 cve: BOE-A-2020-4166 Verifiable at https://www.boe.es
13. Those of telecommunications and audiovisual companies and essential computer services, as well as those networks and facilities that support them and the sectors or subsectors necessary for their correct operation, especially those that are essential for the adequate provision of public services, as well such as the operation of remote work of public employees.
14. Those that provide services related to the protection and care of victims of gender violence.
15. Those who work as lawyers, solicitors, social graduates, translators, interpreters and psychologists and who attend procedural proceedings not suspended by Royal Decree 463/2020, of March 14, declaring the state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19 and, in this way, comply with the essential services established by consensus by the Ministry of Justice, the General Council of the Judiciary, the State Attorney General's Office and the Autonomous Communities with powers in the matter and embodied in the Resolution of the Secretary of State for Justice dated March 14, 2020, and the adaptations that may be agreed upon.
16. Those who provide services in legal offices and consultancies, administrative agencies and social graduates, and third-party and own occupational risk prevention services, in urgent matters.
17. Those who provide services in notaries and registries for the fulfillment of the essential services established by the General Directorate of Legal Security and Public Faith.
18. Those that provide cleaning, maintenance, urgent breakdown repair and surveillance services, as well as those that provide services regarding the collection, management and treatment of hazardous waste, as well as hazardous and non-hazardous solid urban waste, collection and treatment of wastewater, decontamination activities and other waste management services and transport and removal of by-products or in any of the entities belonging to the Public Sector, in accordance with the provisions of article 3 of Law 9/2017, of 8 December November, of Public Sector Contracts.
19. Those who work in the Refugee Reception Centers and in the Temporary Stay Centers for Immigrants and in the public entities of private management subsidized by the Secretary of State for Migrations and that operate within the framework of International Protection and Care humanitarian.
20. Those who work in water supply, purification, conduction, purification and sanitation activities.
21. Those that are essential for the provision of meteorological prediction and observation services and the associated processes of maintenance, surveillance and control of operational processes.
22. Those of the operator designated by the State to provide the universal postal service, in order to provide the collection, admission, transportation, classification, distribution and delivery services for the sole purpose of guaranteeing said universal postal service.
23. Those that provide services in those sectors or subsectors that participate in the import and supply of sanitary material, such as logistics, transport, storage, customs transit (freight forwarders) companies and, in general, all those that participate in sanitary corridors .
24. Those who work in the distribution and delivery of products purchased online, by telephone or by mail.
25. Any others that provide services that have been considered essential.