The Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, has announced this afternoon in the press conference after the Council of Ministers, that the ERTE extension has been agreed by all parties, and has been given the green light by central Government, and praised the fact that that the negotiation process has been faster than previously, which shows the confidence that there is towards this mechanism, that "is working well".
Escrivá stressed that the new extension of the ERTE basically maintains the same protection scheme for companies and workers as now, however, the agreement simplifies the procedures to extend them in the future, so that no re-applications or administrative authorizations will be needed.
The ERTE extension covers the three main points in the same way as the current one:
- those destined to the 'ultra-protected' sectors and companies linked to its value chain;
- the ERTE for impeding activity, ie forced closure by Covid restrictions, eg nightlife.
- the ERTE for limitation, ie bar and restaurant capacities etc.
The exemptions in social security contributions linked to these modalities are also maintained, thus, in the case of 'ultra-protected' sectors and companies in their value chain, the exemptions will be 85% for companies with fewer than 50 workers and 75% for those with more than 50 employees, both for reinstated employees and for suspended. This, as Escrivá has pointed out, supposes a “de facto” direct aid for these sectors.
In ERTEs due to disability, to which companies from any sector or activity can take advantage, the exemptions will be 100% for companies with less than 50 workers and 90% for those with more than 50 employees on the staff.
In the limitation ERTE, to which companies from any sector or activity can also have access, the exemptions will be decreasing until May 2021. For companies with less than 50 workers, these will be 100% in February, 90% in March, from 85% in April and 80% in May. For those with more than 50 employees, they will be 90%, 80%, 75% and 70%, respectively.
Thanks to the simplification of the procedures, companies that are holders of an ERTE due to impediment or limitation, authorized before or during the validity of this rule, will not have to request and process a new file before the labour authority to go from one to other. It will be enough for them to send a communication to the labour authority that has issued the corresponding resolution to the ERTE of which it is the owner and to the union representation, and it will not be necessary to send a new collective request for benefits to the SEPE.
NEW 'ULTRA-PROTECTED' SECTORS:
According to the Government, in the new extension "more generous" objective criteria are used to determine the sectors considered "ultra-protected", which has led to the incorporation of new "CNAE", protecting almost 50,000 more workers.
Thus, those companies whose CNAE between the end of April and the end of December have not recovered activity in a percentage lower than 70% and with a percentage of affiliates covered by ERTE greater than 15% have been included in this list.
To these 42 CNAE we must add the five activities that were included in December as 'ultra-protected' sectors within the framework of the hospitality rescue plan and which are wholesale trade in beverages; restaurants and food stands; activities of botanical gardens, zoos and nature reserves; drinking establishments, and gambling and betting activities (casinos, bingo halls, lotteries and betting houses). Thus, in total, 47 activities will be part of the CNAE 'ultra-protected' by the ERTE.
MAINTENANCE OF EMPLOYMENT COMMITMENT:
The extension maintains the commitment to maintain employment in its current wording, as well as the prohibition of companies that make ERTE to dismiss, interrupt temporary contracts, distribute dividends and work overtime and outsource activity.
Workers affected by ERTE will continue to have access to the benefit without a grace period, the period consumed will not be computed until January 2022 and the benefit will be equal to 70% of the regulatory base. The benefits applicable to discontinuous permanent workers (including extraordinary benefits) and the improvement of protection of people affected by ERTE with part-time contracts are also maintained.
Currently, there are 704,000 people in ERTE, although at the high peak of the pandemic the protected workers reached more than 3.4 million. Of this total, 450,000 are in some of the modalities that entail exemptions to Social Security.
Escrivá highlighted that the percentage of workers reincorporation into the labor market from the ERTE reaches 85% in Spain, one of the highest among European countries that have this or similar mechanism and all of this “despite the fact that Spain, due to its productive structure, has been more affected by the pandemic”.
