Practically one in three self-employed workers, 28.7%, would raise the contribution base to Social Security if they improve the benefits to which they are entitled, according to the report "The self-employed worker before social security"Carried out by the National Federation of Associations of Autonomous Workers, ATA for Fundación MAPFRE.

The study, the result of a survey of more than 1,800 self-employed workers, aims to analyze the approach of the self-employed to social, public and complementary pension systems, and increase their financial and insurance knowledge so that they can make more informed decisions about your future.

"Among the objectives that Fundación MAPFRE has is the promotion of a greater financial and insurance culture," says Julio Domingo, General Director of Fundación MAPFRE, "The more information citizens have, the better decisions they can make about their future and, speaking of supplementary savings and pensions, decisions have to be made 20 or 30 years before retirement, for which it is essential to be well informed . That is why we work to disseminate this knowledge by promoting studies for specific groups, such as this one of ATA, or through initiatives such as the portal Insurance and pensions for all "

The Study reflects that 86% of the self-employed contribute for the minimum base, which in 2019 is set at € 944.40 / month. Despite this figure, it should be noted that 37.9% of the group is predisposed to change and raise their contribution base, of which 28.7% said that they would do so if they improve the benefits they currently offer to the group.

Against this, 38.2% of the self-employed points out the lack of income as the main reason for not uploading their base contribution and a 13.2% prefer to invest money in hiring private plans because they consider that they are better than the benefits that they will receive from the public system.

Given this situation, the study carried out by ATA evaluates the knowledge that the self-employed have and believe they have about which rights derive from their contributions. One in two freelancers – 54.9% – believe they do not have sufficient knowledge of the benefits generated by their contributions to Social Security and only one in three self-employed – 33.7% – considers that they know the basics. Only 3% of the self-employed consider that they have a wide knowledge of the benefits to which they have the right to be autonomous and to contribute to the Social Security.

The contribution bases established by the Social Security for 2019 establish the minimum contribution base at € 944.40 / month and the maximum at € 4070.10 / month. From these two figures the self-employed can choose the amount for which they wish to pay (30% of the chosen base is what is quoted). That 30% is distributed:

• 28.30% – Common contingencies.
• 0.90% – Professional contingencies.
• 0.70% – Cessation of activity
• 0.10% – Professional training.

Breaking down the different social benefits included in the quote, health care, sick leave and retirement are the best known by the self-employed: two out of every three self-employed – 67.2% – affirm that they know their contribution entitles them to healthcare, 58.5% have access to sick leave not derived from their professional activity and practically one in two – 47.1% – know they have the right to retirement.

As for professional contingencies, two out of every three self-employed workers – 66, 2% – know that this contribution entitles them to benefit in case of an accident at work. Faced with this, one in four self-employed – 25.6% – mistakenly believes that professional contingencies also cover health care.

It is appreciated among the collective ignorance of the benefits that cover the different contingencies for which they are contributing: 20.8% – one in five self-employed – believes that common contingencies give them the right to leave due to an accident at work or occupational disease, when this benefit is included in the contribution for professional contingencies, a contribution for which up to January 1, 2019, only 19% of the self-employed contributed. After the last approved measures all the self-employed already quote for professional contingencies.

"In short, the study reflects a group of self-employed workers with a high degree of ignorance of both the benefits to which they are entitled due to their contribution to Social Security, which resorts moderately to private protection systems and on which it is declared , mostly, unfamiliar", Points out José Luis Perea, general secretary of ATA.

Graphs 3.3 and 3.4, which are presented below, show what the respondents really know about the benefits that correspond to them for the payment of their Social Security contributions. The question asked specifically was what are the benefits linked to each type of contingency. In the graphs you can see marked with a check (✓) the correct answers.

Six out of ten freelancers suspend social security

The study also analyzes what is the assessment of the collective Social Security system in general and how they see it in comparison with the tax burden and the services of the rest of European countries.

The feeling of misinformation and ignorance that the self-employed have in the social protection systems has as a consequence the low valuation of the benefits of both sectors. Thus, it is observed as six out of ten autonomous, 59.8% suspend Social Security and only 12.1% of the one above the notable rating.

In addition, a strong 62.6% believes that the Spanish system is below or well below the rest of European countries. "The lack of information seems clear, in this sense, because Spain is spearheading the equal rights of self-employed workers, being the only State that has a Statute of Autonomous Work, a fundamental piece in the equality of rights of the workers, "says José Luis Perea.

This disinformation is particularly worrisome, the study notes, taking into account that many of the measures are recent and given their novelty they should have had enough diffusion to reach, at least, the members of the group affected.

As a conclusion to the study, both entities point out the need to address an awareness campaign among the group of benefits that may involve increasing, as far as possible, their contribution base and also serve to make them more aware of the benefits to which they are entitled.

The presentation press conference was attended by the general secretary of CEN, Carlos Fernández Valdivielso, the general secretary of UGT Navarra, Jesús Santos, and the general secretary of CCOO Navarra, Chechu Rodríguez.

In particular, the campaign proposes the promotion of good practices as a means to combat occupational accidents that, In 2018 alone, it left 9,782 work accidents with sick leave in the Community of Navarra, 9.9% more than the previous year.

To this end, the figure of the Territorial Delegate for the Prevention of Occupational Risks (DTP) will be promoted, whose main task will be to encourage the improvement of risk prevention among SMEs of between 6 and 49 workers. Specifically, there will be 18 DTP, all qualified technicians in occupational risk prevention, who will visit the companies.

The program, in detail

Participating companies will receive two visits to diagnose their needs in terms of risk prevention: one from a DTP from the CEN and another from a DTP union. Both will carry out jointly, fruit of the consensus between the two parties, an improvement report and will meet with management and workers to propose various actions that will be guided by the DTP of the CEN.

Subsequently, a summary document will be published, where all the work that has been done in this respect will be addressed with each of the participating SMEs.

Small and medium-sized companies interested in participating in 'DTP, your vaccine against occupational hazards' can expand information or enroll in the program through the web dtpnavarra.com or, by email sent to the address: info@dtpnavarra.com.

A pioneer figure in Spain

In the signing of the revision of the Intersectorial Agreement of Navarra on Labor Relations, of October of last year, CEN, UGT and CCOO committed themselves to relaunch this figure of the Territorial Delegate for Prevention that, years ago, already it was a pioneer in Spain because of its management fruit of the consensus between business organizations and unions and for the good results it has brought in reducing labor accident rates.

The three signatory organizations highlighted in this agreement how the accident rate had increased in recent years in Navarre and committed to work and develop the necessary actions to combat it until the maximum possible eradication of work accidents and the implementation of measures to prevent diseases of work origin.

In this agreement, CEN, UGT and CCOO proposed measures to introduce improvements in the companies in matters of occupational health, such as transferring to companies the need to protocolize intervention programs against work stress and all aspects related to conflicts and risks psychosocial In companies with fewer than fifty workers, the three organizations also recommend holding regular meetings on risk prevention between the prevention delegate and the company management.

The president of the Confederation of Business Associations of the Balearic Islands (CAEB), Carmen Planas, and Gerardo Cuerva, president of CEPYME and vice president of CEOE, have delivered the Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2019 to Francisco Vidal, president of Grupo Autovidal, during the 'Entrepreneur Gala' held at the Castell de Bellver in Palma, before more than five hundred guests and in presence of the main representatives of the Balearic society.

In a lively speech, the president of CAEB has started by saying: "I want to share with all of you a concern that, I confess, comes from my heart and makes me sad, because Balears is losing welfare and has been doing it for 20 years" .

Planas has supported his argument in the book "Why countries fail. The origins of power, prosperity and poverty ", work of the prestigious economists Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, who analyze why neighboring countries, or neighboring regions, that have similar conditions, present wide differences in terms of economic development and well-being , coinciding both authors in pointing out that "the cause is in the policies dictated by the institutions of each country or of each region".

The president of CAEB, in this line, explained that "20 years ago we were on the podium of the Spanish regions, but we have been losing positions because of the policies we have been implementing for two decades."

Therefore, "Balears will not reach greater levels of prosperity until it has the right policies and I sincerely believe that the time has come to change public and private policies. We can not continue choosing those problems that seem more pressing, more urgent and easier to solve in the short term and continue systematically relegating the most important is the loss of welfare. A problem that we have not addressed for 20 years. "

"It is not enough to affirm before the lack of housing, that we will do more for the next four years or that we will install housing for rent, although later we will do it, or not. It is not enough to say, in front of our young people that they leave their studies prematurely, that we will put in free enrollments or that we will expand the educational offer. It is not enough to tell our traditional industries that they are about to close, that we will support them in fairs or we will subsidize the purchase of machinery. It is not enough to tell our young university students that they do not find a job that suits their professional profile, that we will incorporate them into the administration or help them to start their own business, though, carrying a huge backpack of rules and difficulties on their backs. It is not enough to tell the resident, in the face of congestion problems, that we will invent trolleys, or we will propose to go by bicycle or we will articulate a shuttle bus network, because all that is just patches ", lamented the president of CAEB.

"And what we need are not patches, but an integral solution that solves the root of all our problems at once", added Planas, assuring that "the time has come for all institutions to assume the urgent responsibility of boosting the productivity of all the factors of production that we use in our companies, departments and institutions. Because productivity is the element that makes some regions more prosperous than others. "

Planas has defended that "the only way to increase the efficiency of the economy, is from institutional reforms, ambitious reforms, reforms with capital letters".

Planas: "The big problem is the alarming low productivity we experience in the Balearics at all levels"

Based on the data of the Impulsa Foundation, Planas pointed out that "as important as the low competitive position of the Balearic Islands, is the set of arguments that explain it, because they discover the real problems that we have in pillars as important as higher education, innovation, business sophistication and the quality of our institutions, where we are, by the way, below the Spanish average ".

Planas has insisted that "in addition to the low ratings that Balears shows today in all these indexes, the worrying thing, the truly worrying my dear friends, is that for too many years we have been getting worse in a tendential way, and, especially, in matter institutional where the increasingly high and complex taxes, joins the ineffective bureaucracy that explains that certain procedures require more time and are more expensive than the average of the regions with which we compete, and I mean the obtaining of permits for the building, the procedures to start a business, to get electricity, to obtain credit or to register the property …

"The administrations have to function and facilitate the economy to work for our society to prosper," said the president of CAEB.

"Now we need to act accordingly. Add support and forge a leadership, a leadership that has to be shared by the public sector and the private sector, by the government and by the opposition, to place Balears back among the most prosperous regions of Europe ". "It is necessary and also urgent that, under that shared leadership, we join all efforts because today is the time to demand not a government pact, but a pact, a great public-private pact of modernization and productive transformation of the Balearic economy" .

"Let's do it now," the CAEB president has said, "and let's not fall into the error of believing that growth is guaranteed, because it is not, and let's not forget to implement reforms that are perhaps uncomfortable in the shortest term," warned Carmen Planas.

"Establish a reformist strategy instead of continuing to deceive ourselves with a policy of chosen problems and leaving relegated the big problem is the alarming low productivity we experience in the Balearics at all levels," he stressed.

He has also had a message for the business community. "Today, I ask the companies not only tenacity and passion, but vision and creativity to break this status quo. Let us also abandon short-term strategies, often too cost-focused, to grow from digitization, circularity, internationalization, clustering, innovation, sustainability, responsibility. I know that what I ask is difficult but today, there are companies with names that you are doing and you are achieving and a good number of them are here and you are an example to follow ".

Carmen Planas concluded her speech saying that "I had told you that today I wanted to share with all of you a concern that comes from my heart. And believe me, from my heart, I tell you that nothing would make me happier than in 20 years, at this gala of the entrepreneur, the president of CAEB can congratulate everyone, because together we have achieved it. "

The intervention of the president of CAEB has provoked wide approval among the attending public and, especially, among the numerous representatives of business leaders who have traveled to Palma today to attend the Entrepreneur Gala. Among those who stand out the president of CEPYME and vice president of CEOE, Gerardo Cuerva; the vice president of the Foment del Treball, Elisabeth Cañigueral; the president of the management of the Valencian Community and also vice-president of CEOE, Salvador Navarro, and also the president of the businessmen of Murcia, José María Albarracín, organizations that, together with the Balearic Islands, make up the Mediterranean arch.

Also present were the presidents of the Spanish Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs, Fermín Albaladejo, and the National Association of Autonomous Workers, Lorenzo Amor, as well as the president of the ASINCEX engineering association, Juan Merino.

Planas stressed that "I believe that your presence reflects the fruit of the intense work we are doing in CAEB to be the transmission belt between companies in the Balearic Islands and the rest of Spain." He also pointed out that "I also want to tell you, and I do it with pride, that the initiatives that CAEB is developing with the third sector, both in the Balearic Islands and abroad, have been recognized at the national level and, thanks to them, today CAEB holds the chairmanship of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the CEOE. An opportunity to drive major changes in business strategy and enhance the social commitment of companies.

The president of CAEB also congratulated "my great work team, vice presidents of the CAEB, chairmen of the commissions and the more than 80 associations that make up the large employers of the Balearic Islands that is CAEB, as well as my team of direct collaborators , because not for the fact of seeing them almost daily deserve less my personal gratitude.

Planas also had words of thanks for Bankia, for sponsoring again this Gala of the 2019 Entrepreneur, as well as for the entities that have collaborated in the act, specifically mentioning the Barceló Group, the English Court, Sampol, Willis Towers Watson, Asima, Palma City Council, Coca-Cola, Estrella Damm and Cut & Go, "a company, innovative, from here, from Mallorca, whose robots we have seen in the video and which have created the award, the work of Manuel Granero, whom I congratulate your creativity A work born of the purest talent and the most modern technology 'made in Balears' ".

The president of CEPYME and vice president of CEOE, Gerardo Cuerva, highlights that "it is necessary to bet on stability, moderation and legal security"

The president of the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CEPYME) stressed in his speech that "it is necessary to remind the political representatives at different administrative levels, the need to place, clearly and clearly, companies and , in a very special way, to SMEs in the central axis of economic policies.

Gerardo Cuerva, vice-president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), insisted that "for entrepreneurs to be able to carry out our work, it is necessary to bet on stability, moderation and legal security, as well as an environment favorable for the activity of the companies ".

For this reason, Cuerva has concluded by defending "a framework that, in short, takes into account the needs of companies and does not introduce elements of insecurity that hinder and tax their activity".

Armengol highlights "the role of CAEB to build bridges with administrations and promote consensus to continue creating opportunities and welfare for citizens"

The Acting President of the Balearic Government, which has closed the event, stressed that "CAEB's vocation is with the companies and with the people behind it, but also, as a fundamental actor of civil society, it has a double responsibility with the land in which it is rooted. On the one hand economic, lending a magnificent support to companies of all dimensions and all sectors. And, on the other hand, social, building bridges with the administrations so that together, from a climate of loyalty and consensus, we can promote tools and environments that make your work easier and allow you to continue creating opportunities and welfare for the citizens ".

Francina Armengol pointed out that "as a result of the collective work of companies, unions, institutions, and also workers, we have experienced a legislature of maximum, quantitative and also qualitative growth, in places of work, in indefinite work, in profitability, in salary increases, in rights, in public services, in exports and, also, in low season ".

Francisco Vidal, thanks for the award of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2019

Francisco Vidal, president of Grupo Autovidal, thanked the award of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2019, stating that "I want and I must share this award with my four children and the 260 employees of Autovidal since without their work, dedication and I would dare to say, love for the company, nor would I be here, nor would Autovidal be what it is today and above all because they are going to have to face the challenges of the future of our sector, the transformation of mobility, which it is predicted to be fascinating in the coming decades and it will put us to the test again, so this award is for those who are now in the day to day of our company, so they do not lose that transforming role that has always been in our DNA, to achieve new forms of productivity that will help us to last and improve our competitiveness and of course, also in gratitude to the thousands of clients who have trusted us throughout these 98 years of activity.

Vidal stressed that "if there are two things that I am proud of as an entrepreneur, first of all I have known how to make the generational change to my four children at the right time, when I thought I was losing strength and creativity and they were winning. And the second, to have been able to instill in my children the values ​​of the business family, which for me is not the same as the family business since this is when the company works for the whole family even if a family member is not integrated into it and the Family Business that is one in which the whole family works in and for the company ".