The ministries of Labor and Social Economy and of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration have agreed, within the framework of social dialogue, with the social agents the new conditions that will allow the benefits of the ERTE to be extended until next September 30.
The agreement, which will be moved tomorrow to the meeting of the Council of Ministers, provides benefits in the contributions of workers to Social Security, guarantees for the maintenance of employment and flexibility mechanisms for companies to adapt to new scenarios as it evolves. the health crisis.
Fee waivers
The agreement includes different exemptions for companies, depending on their situation. In the case of companies that are in a situation of partial force majeure, the agreement until September maintains the spirit of the current one, giving more benefits to the contributions of activated workers than of suspended workers.
In this way, for companies with less than 50 workers they will have an exemption of 60% of the social contributions of their activated workers in the months of July, August and September and 35% for workers who continue to be suspended.
For companies with 50 or more workers, exemptions will be 40% for activated workers and 25% for non-activated workers.
For their part, companies that are currently in ERTE due to total force majeure will transition to ERTE until September 30. Among them, those with less than 50 workers will have a decreasing exemption in the contributions of their employees of 70%, 60% and 35% in July, August and September, respectively. For companies with 50 and more workers, exemptions would become 50%, 40% and 25%, in July, August and September, respectively.
These ERTE will be processed with the mandatory report of the Labor Inspection and after having informed the legal representatives of the workers, as regulated by article 47 of the status of workers.
Safeguard for employment
The companies that avail themselves of the exemptions foreseen in the case of ERTE, must maintain employment for a period of six months.
During a valid ERTE, companies will not be able to make layoffs and will not be able to distribute dividends. Companies located in tax havens are outside the scope of these ERTEs.
The workers of the companies that benefit from these ERTE will not be able to work overtime. Companies will not be allowed to enter into new labor contracts, direct or through ETT, or to establish new outsourcing, during the validity of the ERTE.
Unemployment protection
People affected by temporary employment regulation files derived from Covid-19, both total or partial force majeure and based on productive causes or those processed in case of regrowth, will enjoy the reinforced protection provided in the previous agreement: they will be recognized the benefit even when they do not prove a prior contribution period and the counter will be applied to 0.