The Government of the Canaries has obtained the support of the minister of Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Diaz, for a extension of the temporary layoff of employment (ERTE) by reason of force majeure, a decision which the minister has advanced to the president of the Canary islands, Angel Victor Torres, at a meeting held this Monday in the form of telematics.
At the meeting, in the framework of the Committee of Economic Management have also participated, the owners of the Economy, Knowledge and Employment, Elena Máñez; Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Yaiza Castile; of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Alice Vanoostende; and Social Rights, Equality, Diversity and Youth, Noemí Santana, in addition to the president of the Confederation of Employers Canaria, Las Palmas, Agustin Manrique de Lara, the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Carlos Francisco, UGT Canarias, Agatha Victoria Francis, and of CCOO in the Canary islands, Inocencio Gonzalez.
To the president of the Canary islands, Angel Victor Torresthe extension of ERTE “it will allow to give response to the great impact that the health emergency is having on the economy canaria”. In particular, the president insisted on the stoppage of the tourism sector, “which cannot be reactivated from the night to the morning” and represents 35% of GDP and 40% of employment in the Archipelago. For this reason, “the Canary islands requires specific measures to deal with their desescalada and economic recovery,” said Torres.
The minister moved to the president’s canary his commitment to the application of extensions there will be special attention to the most affected sectors, such as tourism, and to communities hit hard by the crisis, as is the case of the Canary islands. In that regard, he advanced that the proposal is being discussed at the table of social dialogue.
For its part, Elena Máñez stated together with the participants in the meeting requests that the Canary islands considers it essential to include in a new Royal Decree-law of urgent measures that modify the regulatory requirements for ERTE of force majeure and ordinary causes.
Among these demands is the automatic extension of the FATE of force majeure on terms equal to and superior to those already established in Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, as well as the inclusion of stimuli similar to the dossiers motivated by ordinary causes, such as the exoneration of a percentage of the fees business, and the maintenance of unemployment benefits, under current conditions, for the workers subject to a FATE.
Both the Government and the economic and social agents have expressed to the minister the need to take into account the singularities canary islands by the high weight for the economy and employment are tourism and the dependence on the outside, so that recovery can occur “with security and legal safeguards for businesses and working people”. In this sense, Máñez recalled that the business fabric canary is composed in its vast majority by small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) in need of “stimulus policies so that when these companies decide to face the recovery of their economic activity, they can do so with flexibility.”
In the meeting today, the minister gave assurances once again to the Government of the Canary islands the game corresponding to the Integral Plan of Employment of the Canary islands once you finish the last paperwork.
In the meeting, both the trade unions and the employers stressed the unity of action with which you are working from the Canary islands and emphasized the importance of the recent proposal for a Covenant of Revival of Social and Economic of the Canary islands. A document that the minister has requested that we submit to it as an example of coordination before the grave situation that is living.
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