The government, unions and business associations reached a late agreement this afternoon (Monday) to extend the ERTE and benefits for the self-employed until February 28th 2022, a month more than initially planned. After a day of intense and continuous negotiation, the Government presented a final proposal that included a series of improvements that this time did get the support of the other participants.
The CEOE union have had an urgent meeting and have given their approval to the new conditions, although the UGT has yet to formally accept it. The new decree will be approved in the Council of Ministers tomorrow (Tuesday), in which the green light will also be given to increase the minimum wage.
As originally agreed there will be an automatic extension of ERTE and autonomos for October with the same advantages as now, but companies will have to apply for the extension from November 1st 2021 to February 28th 2022. This means that companies will have the month of October to request a new ERTE, and the labour authority will have 10 days to respond. In the event that there is no response, the ERTE will be considered approved.
The great stumbling block was, as in the two previous occasions, the rejection by unions and employers to link the extensions to training. Finally, a middle ground has been reached: it will not be compulsory for companies to have training and requalification courses for their workers in ERTE, but if they do, they will enjoy greater reductions in their social security contributions.
Specifically, in ERTE by limitation, all companies will have an 80% exemption of their workers' quotas in ERTE if they offer training. If they do not give them courses to retrain them, the reduction in the fee is reduced to 40% for companies that have more than 10 workers, and 50% if they have 10 employees or less. In the ERTE of impediment of activity, the companies will maintain 100% of exoneration in any case.
Training hours will also vary depending on the size of the company: in those with more than 10 employees, 40 hours of training will be needed, while it will be 30 if they have 10 or less. To pay for these courses, which must be carried out before June 30th, companies will have the right to an increase in the credit they have annually for financing actions in the field of programmed training, which will range between 160 and 320 euros per person, depending on the size of the company.
The new text also includes important improvements for workers, including the extension of the so-called 'counter to zero' until December 31st 2022, and its extension to permanent-discontinuous workers. This assumes that people in ERTE will not require unemployment benefits until the end of 2022, as companies cannot fire them during the six month period at the end of the ERTE, so if they are dismissed as of January 1st 2023, they will be able to collect all unemployment benefits that they would have generated before the crisis.
The rest of the rights that the workers had, are maintained as now. Thus, any worker in ERTE will be able to access unemployment, even if they do not have the required contribution time, and the amount of the benefit will be 70% of the regulatory base during the entire term of the agreement, and as before, employers will not be able to fire them in the next six months.
In addition, specific ERTEs are regulated for companies affected by the eruption of the volcano on the island of La Palma, which will benefit from exemptions of up to 100% in the case of seeing their activity totally impeded and up to 90% in the case of limitation.
Aid for the self-employed is also renewed for five months:
There has also been an agreement to extend the aid for cessation of activity, which, like the ERTE, is extended for another five months until the end of February next year, and practically no self-employed person will be left out.
Minister José Luis Escrivá backed down and agreed not to eliminate the extraordinary benefit that 141,000 autonomos are still receiving, although it will be required to demonstrate a 75% drop in turnover compared to the last quarter of 2019 with the last quarter of 2021.
The Income limit has also risen to 75% of the current SMI. Likewise, the 226,000 freelancers who have been laid off until September will enjoy decreasing exemptions between 90% and 25%. The ordinary provision will continue as before.
